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A LITTLE JOURNEY 

TO 

NORWAY and SWEDEN 

FOR HOME AND SCHOOL 

Intermediate and Upper Grades 


LIDA E. RANDALL 


EDITED BY 

MARIAN M. GEORGE 
¥ 



CHICAGO 

A. FLANAGAN CO. 





LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 

MAR 16 1906 

^ Copyright Entry 

Wuvu/Ltqn 

CLASS CV XXc, No. 

/ <£ a 70 7 

COPY B. 


3U i© 


Copyright 1906 
EyA. FEANAGAN COMPANY 


c t 





A Little Journey to 
Norway 

To visit the “Land of the Midnight Sun” in any 
season of the year except- summer would be not only 
to miss the midnight sun itself, but almost to see no 
sun at all, even in the daytime. With only four hours 
of dim daylight in some parts of the country, and in 
other parts a twilight that requires artificial lights 
all day long, we should find a winter visit very un¬ 
satisfactory. 

The latter part of June or the first of July is the 
best time of all the year for a journey to Norway. At 
this season thousands of tourists from all over the 
world visit this country because of its grand and 
beautiful scenery. 

What shall we take with us to make our journey 
comfortable and pleasant? Warm clothing, by all 
means, for in many parts of Norway snow may fall 
even in the middle of summer, and some of the immense 
snow-masses never melt. We shall need our rain¬ 
coats, too, for there are portions of this land where 
it rains a hundred days in the year! We shall take 
stout clothing for mountain-climbing, but no great 
amount of luggage, for there are few railways in Nor¬ 
way, and the native carriages are not made for carry¬ 
ing heavy baggage. 

Consulting our map, we find that Norway is the 


4 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


northernmost country of Europe, and with its sister- 
country, Sweden, occupies the Scandinavian Peninsula. 
It is about 1,100 miles long, and for a third of its 
length lies within the Arctic Circle. At one point it is 
only 20 miles wide, while its greatest breadth is only 
280 miles. But for what it lacks in width it makes 
up in coast-line. It is estimated that if Norway’s 
coast-line could be stretched out in a straight line it 
would reach halfway round the globe! 

What gives Norway this great length of coast-line? 
It has hundreds, if not thousands, of sea-arms called 
fjords (fe-ords') running sometimes a hundred or more 
miles up into the land. The shores of these fjords 
are mountains rising directly from the water’s edge, 
some to a height of six hundred feet. 

Nowhere else in the world will you find a shore so 
calm and sheltered as that of Norway, for a fringe of 
islands, called the Island Rampart, 400 miles in length, 
skirts it on the west and forms a great breakwater; 
so that the water of the fjords is like a muror. 

There are mountains in the interior as well as along 
the coast. On some of the mountain-tops the snow 
never melts. The snow masses are pushed down the 
mountainsides in mighty glacier-streams, which on 
reaching the warmer valleys melt and form the short, 
swift rivers which flow into the fjords. There are 
only seven or eight rivers in the whole country whose 
length is over a hundred miles. The largest river of 
Norway is the Glommen, and it is only 350 miles long. 
Into this river, through a tributary, empty the waters 
of Lake Miosen (Me-o'zen), the largest lake in Norway. 
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A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


5 


lakes, is narrow—a mere river-expansion. The lakes 
of the country cover nearly 2,900 square miles. 

Now, before we start on our journey to this remark¬ 
able land, let us plan our route so as to visit the great¬ 
est possible number of interesting places. We will, 
then, divide the tour thus: 

I. Post-travel f rom Christiania, the capita , to Molde 
(Mftl'de) Fjord. This gives us the opportunity to ride 
over a Norwegian post-road in one of the curious car¬ 
riages of the country, and also to see some of the most 
wonderful scenery of this land of wonderful sights. 

II. A trip from Molde to the North Cape, for a 
glimpse of the Midnight Sun. 

. III. A voyage through the fjord region south of 
Molde, with short trips into the country. 

NORWAY’S CAPITAL 

So early in the morning does our steamer reach 
Christiania that we are only just astir. The first 
glimpse that we catch of the harbor, however, is beauti¬ 
ful—blue sky overhead, water of the deepest blue 
around us, and wonderful pine-clad hills beyond— 
while the air bears to us the odors of sea and forest 
and mountain. 

Christiania is at the head of Christiania Fjord, eighty 
miles from the sea. It has a fine harbor and is the 
chief trade center of Norway, as well as its capital. 
Here timber, pitch, matches, pulp, furs, mackerel, 
herring, cod, cod-liver oil, beer, and many other prod¬ 
ucts are brought, to be sent to other countries. To 
Christiania also come, for distribution throughout the 
country, those goods that Norway cannot produce for 
herself. 



VIEW OF CHRISTIANIA 


















A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


7 


The wharves are busy places. Besides the Norwe¬ 
gian vessels, there are ships in the harbor from nearly 
all the European countries, but most from England 
and Germany. Good need there is of all this busy 
trade while the season lasts, for the harbor of Christi¬ 
ania, having cold land to the north, east and west, 
and a shallow sea to the south, lies frozen over for 
four months in the year. Then all vessels have to lie 
at Drobak, twenty miles to the south. 

Christiania is a city of 260,000 inhabitants. It has 
many large stone buildings, many parks and public 
squares, and well-paved streets shaded by beautiful 
trees. The dwellings are built in the French style, of 
brick and stucco lined off to look like stone. 

To most tourists the first place of interest is the 
Royal Palace—a large but plain brick building, painted 
a dull orange and surrounded by beautiful gardens. 
This palace was formerly occupied at certain seasons 
of the year by King Oscar, ruler of Norway and Swe¬ 
den. For more than five centuries Norway had no 
independent ruler of her own. Norway and Sweden 
were ruled by the same king, though each country had 
its own constitution, parliament, and capital. The 
King was crowned in Norway as well as in Sweden; 
he was obliged to live three months in each }^ear in 
Norway and must open the Norwegian Parliament in 
person. He appointed only Norwegians to office in 
Norway and was called King of Norway and Sweden, 
instead of King of Sweden and Nomay, which was the 
title given him in the other part of his realm. He had 
also to be a member of the Lutheran Church, for that 
is the religion adopted by the government. 


8 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



KING HAAKON VII 

QUEEN MAUDE AND CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER 


The people of Norway are fond of freedom, however, 
and finally grew restless under the rule of King Oscar. 
They disagreed too with the people of Sweden about 
many things, and, during the summer of 1905, dissolved 
the union and set up an independent government. 

In November of the same year, Prince Charles, of 
Denmark, was elected or chosen as their ruler in King 
Oscar’s place, and on November 25 the new king and 
his queen formally entered Christiania. Prince Charles 
is the second son of the Prince Royal or Crown 




A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


9 


Prince of Denmark, but, as the ruler of Norway, was 
given the title King Haakon VII. (Pronounce the 
aa in Haakon like aw in awful.) On November 27, in 
the Storthing or Parliament Home, he took the oath 
whereby he swore to govern Norway in accordance 
with its Constitution and Laws. It was an imposing 
ceremony in the presence of the ministers and principal 
officers of the Army and Navy. 

King Haakon has been known as the “sailor prince,” 
because of his love of the sea and skill as a sailor. He 
has served many years as an officer in the Danish 
Nav} r and can command any kind of naval craft from 
torpedo boat to battleship, and lead it to battle. 

The new Queen of Norway is the daughter of the 
King of England. The little son of the king and 
queen, the Crown Prince Alexander, is but two years 
old. 

We next visit the Parliament House. It is a large 
building with a wing at each end extending toward 
the front, and a central wing in the shape of a many- 
sided polygon. Here the Norwegian Parliament sits 
each year. It consists, like our Congress, of an upper 
and a lower house. Its members are chosen by elec¬ 
tors, and serve three years. 

Norway is divided into six provinces or dioceses, 
each called a stift, and having a bishop at its head. 
The stifts are divided into counties, each county under 
a civil governor. There are in all eighteen counties. 

Whoever visits Christiania must see the university, 
for it is one of the most interesting places in the city. 
It was founded in 1811, and is the only university in 
Norway. Here the young men and women from all 


10 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

parts of the country come, to the number of 1,500. 
The classes, we are told, are always full, for the people 
of this land prize very highly a good education. The 
tuition is free to all native Norwegians who succeed 
in passing the entrance examinations. 

The university includes schools of law, medicine, 
and theology, and the faculty numbers over sixty 
professors, who are appointed by the king. Among 
these is Dr. Fridjof Nansen, the noted Arctic explorer. 
His department of exploration has an endowment of 
$150,000 a year for carrying on the work of exploration 
on the seas. 

The hospitals of the city are in charge of the medical 

department of 
the university. 
Here are also 
art-galleries, li- 
braries, and 
museums. 

In the market 
o f Christiania 
fruit, grain, 
vegetables, hay, 
wines, and fancy 
goods are all 
on sale, but the 
most interesting 
part is the fish 
market. Early 
morning is the time to visit it. The fishermen and 
women have brought their boats up close to the 
pavement, and arc shouting out their wares. 



A FISHING BOAT 







A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


11 


Mackerel, cod, and herring are the chief varieties of fish 
on sale here, with occasionally fine lobster or salmon. 

Here, seated in one of the boats, is a fish-woman in 
juaint white cap, dark homespun skirt, and bright 
bodice. The fish 
which she sells 
she takes one by 
one from the net 
in the bottom 
of the boat. 

We must visit 
some of the 
shops and buy 
souvenirs to 
take away with 
us. The goods 
for sale are very 
tempting. Here 
are many pieces 
of the beautiful 
filigree silver which the Norwegians know so well how 
to make, and tankards and drinking-cups of all kinds. 
We see some very fine silver mugs, delicately chased, 
but most of the drinking-cups are of earthenware or 
china. Those of china have bands of iron around them, 
and silver lids. One we notice has a coin set in the 
cover for an ornament. 

The sweetmeats here are quite unlike those at home. 
Some, tied up in crepe paper, are intended to be dis¬ 
tributed at funerals. We are shown one for a child’s 
funeral—a little candy baby nestling in a big bow of 
crepe. 





12 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


Christiania, as the capital and the seat of a great 
university, has attracted many of the illustrious men 
of Norway—statesmen and councilors, musicians and 
artists, scientists and writers, as well as foreign min¬ 
isters and consuls. Its people are highly educated, 
refined and hospitable. They are fond of parties and 
balls, of music and the theater. The new opera house 
is one of the finest buildings in this gay city. 

Let us now take a fjord steamer and visit some of 
the summer villas. The fjord is dotted with beauti¬ 
ful islands, and on these are the summer homes of 
many wealthy families of Christiania. These people 
enjoy not only their island-homes, but also the shores 
and mountain slopes of the mainland. The hills 
around the city are covered with pine and birch, and 
here is to be found a variety of wild flowers—blue, 
red, pink and yellow. Lilies-of-the-valley and sweet 
violets grow wild here. Christiania has been called 
“The Garden of Norway.” 

NORWEGIAN INDUSTRIES 

The pulp-factories at Drammen, near Christiania, 
attract many tourists. The greater part of Drammen’s 
population of 21,000 finds employment in the manufac¬ 
ture of pulp. Although there are nearly two hundred 
pulp-factories in Norway, this town is the chief center 
of the industry. It is on an arm of Christiania Fjord, 
into which empty the waters of many lakes and a 
number of rivers rising away up in the mountains. 
Thus there is a chain of waterways down which to 
float the logs used in the making of pulp. From 
Drammen, too, the pulp can easily be sent to any 
country of the world. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


13 


Wood-cutters work, sometimes all the year, in the 
mountain-forests, cutting the logs and hauling them 
to the streams. Beautiful Lake Spirillen to the north, 
and the streams flowing into it, are filled with logs the 
year round. So full of logs s the lake that every¬ 
where our steamer thumps and bumps against them. 
Think of the logs it must take to make the 1,200 tons 
of pulp which the mills of Drammen alone grind each 
day! 

It is feared the pulp industry and the sawmills will 
be the ruin of Norwegian forests, for the one takes the 
little trees and the other the big. Some idea may be 
had of the greatness of these two industries when we 
learn that there are, besides the 200 pulp-factories, 
nearly 400 sawmills. It is said that both industries 
together employ about 45,000 people. Only the 
fisheries surpass the lumbering business. In this 
country, where it takes a hundred years for a pine to 
grow large enough to yield a log twenty-five feet long 
and ten inches thick, something ought to be done to 
preserve the forests. 

The logs for the pulp-factory are cut into lengths 
easy to handle. These are put through a mill and 
ground into coarse fibers or shreds. They are then 
ground fine in another mill and mixed with water and 
chemicals. Only young trees are used for pulp, as 
the fiber of the old trees is too tough. 

Alongside the factories are wharves where steamers 
are moOred while taking on their cargoes of pulp to 
be carried to foreign ports—some to the United States 
but the larger portion to England and France, where 
it is used chiefly for making paper. So the newspapers 


14 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


of London or Paris are very likely to come from the 
Norwegian forests. Much of the wood pulp, however, 
is made into coarse wrapping-paper. 

Though so much pulp is sent to other countries, a 
large amount is made into paper in Christiania. We visit 

a paper-mill, 
where the pulp is 
pressed into thin 
sheets between 
heavy rollers 
and carried into 
a warm place 
called the dr}^- 
ing-room. We 
visit, also, cot- 
ton-f ac to rie s 
and machine 
shops, for al¬ 
though Christi¬ 
ania has not 
long been a fac¬ 
tory city, her manufactures promise soon to be¬ 
come very valuable. 

Barren regions and mountains form a large part of 
Norway. Only about 3| square miles out of every 
hundred have a soil and climate suitable for tillage 
or pasture, so there is little grain or stock raised. 
Then, too, manufacturing prospers under difficulties, 
for while some iron, silver, and copper is mined, Nor¬ 
way has no coal with which to run the furnaces of 
smelting works and machine shops. 

Why not turn the many, many mountain streams 



A MOUNTAIN HOME 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


15 


into water power for factories?” some one asks. This 
is done to some extent, but the raw materials for manu¬ 
facturing are not plentiful. Cotton and silk cannot be 
produced in this climate, and for some reason there 
are not many sheep in Norway, although it would 
seem just the place for them. The small amount of 
wool produced is woven on hand-looms in the homes. 

Modern farm machinery has only recently come 
into Norway, and is yet unknown in the remote regions. 
It seems more profitable to import farming mple- 
ments from the United States than to carry on their 
manufacture here. 

There is, however, one important industry in Nor¬ 
way which makes use of the water-power of the rivers, 
and that is lumbering. More than a fifth of the country 
is covered with forests, mainly of soft wood—pine and 
fir. The forest regions are for the most part in the 
interior, along the Keel, or mountain-chain of the 
Scandinavian Peninsula. 

Wood was once used almost entirely for fuel, but 
now peat takes its place. Wood is the chief export 
of Norway to America. It is interesting to know that 
our word deal comes from the Norse doel , or piece, 
meaning the planks into which timber is sawed, in¬ 
stead of the whole trunk; but as nearly all the wood 
we get from Norway is soft wood, deal has come to 
mean simply soft wood. 

The life of the Norwegian wood-cutter is very hard. 
The felling of the timber is done in late autumn and 
in winter. In some regions the cutter goes far into 
the forest, taking provisions to last for weeks and 
even months. He builds himself a little hut and fills 


16 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


the cracks with moss to keep out the cold. The door¬ 
way is so small that he must crawl on his hands and 
knees to enter. Indeed, when a heavy snowstorm 
has piled the drifts over his little hut, it looks like an 
Eskimo dwelling. 

Inside, a flat stone serves as a stove. No fancy 
cooking could the poor wood-cutter do on this rude 
stove if he should wish to; but very simple food serves 
him. His bed is nothing but logs rolled together and 
covered with dry hay and moss. Thus he lives, alone, 
going home only once or twice, perhaps, during the 
whole season. 

The forests are in the coldest part of Norway. Often 
the wood-cutter must keep a fire burning all night or 
freeze. Sometimes he is obliged to drive his horses 
all night long, for fear of their freezing to death before 
morning. The horses are fed hay instead of oats, to 
keep them warm. Their work is to draw the tree- 
trunks over a prepared road to the nearest mountain- 
stream. Here the logs are left till spring, when they 
are floated down to the mills. Should they get jammed, 
the logger must jump upon them and push them 
apart with boat-hooks, being careful, however, to 
spring ashore before the mass dashes upon him. 
Wherever the falls of the river are very steep, canals 
are dug through which the logs are guided. 

All along the streams are sawmills and planing-mills, 
match-factories and paper-mills. In some of the 
latter not only wood but also birch-bark is made into 
paper. The wood industries together employ over 
100,000 men. This is not including those who work 
at home, making boxes, baskets, wooden trunks, and 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


17 


many other articles. The wood products exported 
each year are worth many millions of dollars. 

At the wharves we see logs, lumber, pulp, and 
various wood-products, as well as other articles, being 
shipped to other lands. Much of the shipping is done 
in Norwegian vessels, for the abundance of ship-timber 
and a love for the sea have led the Norwegians to 
build ships to transport goods for other countries as 
well as for themselves. Although her ships are not 
so large as those of some other countries, Norway has 
a greater number of vessels in her merchant fleet than 
any other nation of Europe, except Great Britain. 
Her vessels go to nearly all the chief foreign ports. 

But Christiania must be left behind, since there are 
so many delightful things before us. Now for our first 
post-ride, for we are to travel by post across Norway. 

POSTING 

We find a pony and cariole waiting for each of us. 
The cariole is the national vehicle. It is a two¬ 
wheeled affair, something like a sulky, except that it 
has a little platform behind the seat for the luggage— 
and for the post-boy, who sits on the luggage, for the 
seat will hold but one. We pay our fare at the rate 
of six or seven cents a mile to the first post-station. 
Between slow-stations we shall have to pay but four 
cents a mile. 

The rope reins are handed us, for each must be his 
own driver. The post-boy goes along only to bring 
back the cariole. In response to a groan and a grunt 
from the post-boy, the pony starts on a slow trot. 
There is no whip, for Norwegians are very careful of 
their ponies. 



18 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


Like most Norwegian horses, our pony is a stout 
little cream-colored fellow with thick, short mane, 
long tail, and & dark stripe down his back. He 

is sure-footed and 
trusty, but not so 
swift as he might 
be. Four miles 
an hour, the sta¬ 
tion-keeper says, 
is what we may 
expect of him. 
Now that we are 
fairly started, the 
ponies fall into 
line, each as close 
possible to the 
cariolo ahead. 

Along the road¬ 
side are big boul¬ 
ders, set close together to form a wall, and at one 
side stretches a telephone wire. Everywhere the road 
is smooth and fine. The roadbed was first dug down 
about three feet like a canal, then a foundation of 
heavy boulders was placed on it to make the road solid 
and to allow the moisture to drain off. Above this 
a layer of smaller stones was placed, while on top 
fine gravel and sand mixed with pounded slate were 
spread and packed as hard as asphalt. 

The roads of Norway were begun over a thousand 
years ago and are among the finest in the world, 
although as difficult to build as were the famous 
roads over the Alps. We are told it costs $3,000 to 



A NORWEGIAN CARIOLE 




A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


19 


build a single mile of road. There are about 18,000 
miles of roadway in the country, which it costs 
$1,500,000 a year to keep up. 

Almost before we know it we are at our first post¬ 
station, a farmhouse some ten miles from Christiania, 
where we are to change ponies and carioles. As 
we drive up to the door, the post-boy cries “bur-r-r!” 
in a hoarse tone, and the pony stops. This is a fast 
station —that is, a station where a certain number 
of horses and carioles are required by law to be 
kept in readiness for travelers, so there is no waiting. 
At the slow stations , however, in the remote. parts, 
we shall have to 
wait for the horses 
to be brought in 
from the field. 

These post¬ 
stations are kept 
by ministers and 
farmers along 
the road, who 
furnish horses, 
carioles and post¬ 
boys, and also 
meals and lodg¬ 
ing to travelers, 
instead of paying 
taxes to the Gov¬ 
ernment, for the Government owns the roads. In the 
poorer regions, or where a man’s farm is small, he 
may work his horses until they are needed for 
posting. 







A POST HOUSE 







20 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

At each station we must register our names in 
the Government day-book. We must write, also, 
our starting point and the place to which we are 
going, the number of horses we use, and any com¬ 
plaints we may 
have to make. 
The Government 
makes it a point 
to see that tour¬ 
ists are well 
served by those 
whom it employs. 

Each farmer 
along the way 
has his own strip 
of road to look 
after. It is 
marked by a 
stone bearing his 
name. If, then, 
the road in any 
particular part is not well cared for, it is at once 
known who is to blame. In winter, however, it 
is often impossible for each man alone to keep his 
road clear, so several land-owners go out together 
with great snow-plows to clear the way. 

There is no need of snow-plows now, however, 
for this is the summer season. All along the way 
are fields of hay, barley, hops, corn, fruit, and vege¬ 
tables, for we are still in the rich farming region of 
Southern Norway. The farms are in the river val¬ 
leys. They are not separated by fences or hedges, 





A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


21 


but are divided off by landmarks. These are red 
posts, each bearing the name of the owner and the 
amount of land he owns. 

The hay-fields are an odd sight. Instead of stack¬ 
ing the hay, Norwegian farmers string it along on 
frames like high fences. They say it dries much 
better this way, for the sun shines on it and the wind 
blows through it, while the rain runs off. With as 
much rain as there is in Norway it is difficult even 
in this fashion to keep the hay from being spoiled 
by the dampness. 

Hay is very precious in this bleak country. The 
mowers in some fields cut very carefully around 
every tree and 
rock with a sickle 
and even with 
shears, that not 
a blade ma} 7 be 
wasted. The hay 
frames are useful 
in winter as well 
as summer, being 
placed to break 
the snow-drifts. 

The Norwegian 
hay-wagons are 
queer things. 

They seem little 
larger than a * curing the hay 

child’s express 

wagon, while their wheels, often of solid wood, are even 
smaller than those of some toy wagons. This brings 





22 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


the carts near the ground, so that they may be drawn 
over very rough places, for the grass must be cut 
on the edge of precipices and in deep ravines. 

The corn, like the hay, must be carefully looked 
after. When it is cut in the autumn the shocks 
will not be allowed to stand on the ground, as is 
our corn at home, but each shock will be raised on 
a post to keep it dry, and away from the mice. 

This is a busy country. Even the women do much 
outdoor work. All along the way we see them cutting 
hay and stacking it on the frames, hauling logs, 
drawing carts, rowing boat-loads of garden-stuff, 
and fishing. In one place a woman is even cutting 
timber. Often women take their knitting into the 
fields, to knit while they rest from the field-work. 

A POST-STATION 

A day’s cariole ride makes us glad that we may be 
sure of supper and a bed at the next stopping-place. 
The station is a pleasant, large farmhouse—or, rather, 
several houses, for one is the kitchen, one is the living- 
room, in another are the sleeping-rooms, and so on. 
Supper is ready, and we sit down with the family. 
The meal consists of salt herring, potatoes, flat-brod , 
•fish pudding, coffee, and several kinds of cheese, one 
of which is made of goat’s milk. 

Although fish is one of the chief articles of food in 
Norway, except at hotels one seldom sees it fresh. 
The Norwegians always dry their fish. Potatoes are 
a favorite food, and the bread, called flat-brod, is of 
rye or oatmeal. It is rolled as thin as a wafer and 
baked in cakes a foot and a half across. At a distance 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


23 


you might almost mistake a loaf of flat-brod for a 
piece of wrapping-paper, so thin is it. It is baked so 
slowly that it is very hard and brittle. Enough is 
baked at a time to last for months. In fact, in some 
Norwegian households flat-brod is baked only two or 
three times a year. 

Fish-pudding is the national dish, and is made of 
salmon or cod, or both. The goat’s-milk cheese is 



IN A NORWEGIAN FARMHOUSE 

dark brown. It is made into large, square cakes and 
is served in very thin slices. Ours is in a perforated 
tissue-paper case, with a ribbon tied around the top. 

While we eat and chat with our host we notice his 
appearance and that of his family. The farmer is 
strongly built and has blue eyes and light hair and 



24 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


beard. He talks intelligently and is very polite, never 
even smiling at our mistakes in trying to speak Nor¬ 
wegian. He can speak a little English. His everyday 
dress is of homespun, but he is sure to have very gay 
clothes for holiday wear—short jacket and trousers, 
and bright waistcoat. 

The farmer’s wife is pleasant, but not at all pretty. 
She, too—like most Norwegians—has blue eyes and 
light hair. Her dress is a short dark skirt, a white 
waist with a bright embroidered bodice, a striped 
apron, and silver jewelry. This jewelry has no doubt 
been in the family for years, handed down from gen¬ 
eration to generation. Some of it is fine filigree work 
and very costly. 

Our bed is built into the wall and we go up two 
steps to get into it. Like all Norwegian beds, it is 
much too short. For covering there are nicely dressed 
sheep and goat skins. The sheets, spun and woven by 
the housewife, are so small that there is no tucking 
them in. Every time we waken we find them on the 
floor. The pillows are either too big or too little. 
We must choose between a feather bolster nearly as 
large around as a barrel and a little pillow about four 
inches square and two thick. But, for all this, we have 
a fairly comfortable night and are ready to rise early 
in the morning to see something of farm-life in this 
region. 

Besides the house, there are barns and stables, and, 
above all, a storehouse. A Norwegian would rather 
have no dwelling than no storehouse. It is always 
a separate building of heavy timber, and is generally 
set up on posts to keep things dry, while on top of the 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


25 


posts are tin pans, bottom side up, to keep out mice 
and ants. The second story nearly always projects over 
the first. The door is very heavy and is strongly 
barred, for this is the farmer’s treasure-house. 

Stored inside these houses are immense sacks of 
flour and meal, boxes of provisions, strings of flat - 
brod, and trunks full of clothing and bedding. The 
trunks are more like huge baskets than anything else. 
They are made of thin strips of wood woven much 
like baskets and painted in gay colors. Each girl in 
the family, when old enough to spin, is given one of 
these trunks. In it she stores away all the cloth she 
spins and weaves for bedding, table-linen, and towels, 
as well as the yarn and embroidery she makes. These 
she saves till she is married and has a home of her own. 

Little trunks of the same style, with handles, are 
used instead of suit-cases or valises for traveling, and 
very quaint they look. 

The barns are large enough for a great number of 
cattle, but only a few are here. Most have gone to 
the hill-farm for the summer, where they will stay 
till cool weather comes again. The son and two of 
the daughters keep the hill-farm. The boy watches 
• the herd, and the girls make butter and cheese. 

At a little distance from the house is a small build¬ 
ing beside a stream. Here is a tiny water-wheel which 
turns the farmer’s mill, so that he is able to grind his 
own corn. The water turns also the grindstone which 
sharpens his scythes and sickles. The farmer is his 
own blacksmith, and shoes the ponies tourists drive 
over the post-road. The farmer’s family forms a little 
village of itself and must supply all of its own 


26 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


needs, for even the nearest neighbor lives at a con¬ 
siderable distance. 

The life of the Norwegian farmer is at best a hard 
one. Often he works all summer and then loses his 
whole crop. Indeed, he must count on losing one 
crop in every five! Then he has to eke out a living 
for himself and family by joining the fishermen, or by 
going into the forest to fell trees. While he is away, 
his wife and daughters must earn something by spin¬ 
ning, weaving and knitting. 

The winter is a busy time in the farmer’s family. 
The children must go to school for a part of the year, 
at least, for the pastor will not confirm them until 
they have finished certain studies, such as the catechism 
and church-history. And unless they are confirmed 
they will not be able to find employment in the cities 
or towns. 

Now our pony and cariole are waiting to take 
us on, and we must say farewell to our kind host. 
The road is no longer level, but stretches over hills 
and sometimes along the ver}^ edge of a steep precipice. 
Here the big boulders have indeed a use. 

Now and then we see the home of a poor farmer. 
Let us notice this one. The cottage is made of heavy 
spruce logs, and perches away up on the hillside. The 
roof is covered with birch-bark laid over the logs 
like shingles. On this is placed grass sod, in which 
bright flowers are now growing. Yes, and there 
is a goat on the roof, nibbling the grass! Inside 
there is little furniture, but there are always flowers. 
Like all Norwegian farms, however poor, it has its 
name. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


27 



are seamed and scarred, and we see here and there 
a leaping cascade. These great walls of rock stretch 
for miles and in some places tower five and six thou¬ 
sand feet above us. The mountains press so closely 
together that the river is penned up in a narrow 


NORWEGIAN FJORDS 

The farther we travel, the more rugged the coun¬ 
try becomes, for we are now approaching the fjord 
region, along the western coast. The mountains 
rise higher and the valley grows narrower. We 
are at last in the famous Romsdal, the most beauti¬ 
ful valley in Norway. The sides of the mountains 


THE ROMSDALHORN FJORD 








28 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


gorge, where it foams and roars and thunders as though 
trying to escape from its prison. There is scarcely 
room enough for the road high along the mountain¬ 
side. 

Here is the giant peak, higher than all the rest, 
called the Romsdalhorn. It is said to be as difficult 
to ascend as the terrible Matterhorn in the Alps. 
Years ago an Englishman thought to win fame by 
climbing to the top, but he found there a heap of stones, 
telling that some one had been there before him, 
although no one could remember that the top had 
ever been reached before. Here, too, is one of the 
most beautiful of all Norwegian waterfalls, The Seven 
Sisters. It is so called because it is formed of seven 
separate falls, although sometimes there are but 
four streams to be seen. 

High up on these cliffs are perched little farm¬ 
houses, where it seems too narrow for a man to stand. 
There is a cottage two thousand feet up the moun¬ 
tainside which can be reached only by a zig-zag path 
beside the bed of a roaring torrent. Everything 
needed from below must be hauled up over the edge 
of the cliff by ropes, and when the farmer and his 
wife go out on the hill to gather their little crop of 
barley or hay, they must tether the children, as they 
do their goats, to the door-post or a tree. When 
one is to be buried from this mountain home, the 
coffin must be let down these two thousand feet by 
ropes. 

And now the beautiful Molde Fjord is before us. 
These fjords of Norway are somewhat like great river- 
mouths, or long narrow bays reaching far into the 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


29 


land, but they are really neither of these. They 
have no single strong current flowing to the sea like 
rivers, nor have the}^ a sandy beach like bays. They 
have what a bay has not, an island belt at their out¬ 
let. The fjord water is deep—much deeper even 
than the sea beyond the island chain. 

Fortunately for Molde, the cliffs rise to a great 
height on the north, shutting off the cold winds. Then, 
too, the Gulf Stream crosses the ocean from our own 
southern shores and brings a breath of warm air to 
this part of the country. Without it the greater 
part of Norway would not be habitable. To this 
ocean river the county owes its food-grains, its com¬ 
merce, and the very life of its people. 

The current, flowing along the west coast, keeps 
the fjords free from ice the whole winter through. 
While Christiania Fjord, far to the south, lies frozen 
four months in the year, Molde Fjord is never frozen 
over. It is warmer the year round, here in Molde 
(which is in sixty-three degrees north latitude), than 
in New York city. The temperature this June day 
is 80° in the shade, and many bathers are enjoying 
themselves in the fjord. 

Molde is one of the most beautiful of all Norwegian 
fjords. On one side snow-topped mountains, whose 
lower sides are covered with forests of pine, maple, 
birch, ash, and chestnut, stretch for forty miles. 
Birches here grow five feet in diameter. 

MOLDE 

The town of Molde, a place of 1,700 inhabitants, 
is beautifully situated on the fjord. Its houses are 


30 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


painted yellow and white, with red and dark-tiled 
roofs. Everywhere at this season on lawns and in 
gardens are roses, peonies, poppies, and honeysuckle, 
and ponds are covered with water-lilies. Everywhere 
in Molde are, also, cherries, the chief fruit of the 
country. 

What a fine situation Molde has for a summer 
resort—which, indeed, it is! It is more easily reached 

from all parts of 
the country than 
almost any other 
town in Norway. 
The road from 
Bergen to Molde 
leads through 
beautiful scenery. 
The high-roads 
from Trondhjem 
(Tr6nd'yem) and 
the Swedish bor¬ 
der meet the one 
from Christiania 
and pass through 
the wonderful 
Romsdal. An¬ 
other road comes across from Christiansund Fjord to 
the north. Then, too, there are the sea-roads from 
the north and south. No wonder hundreds of Nor¬ 
wegians come to spend a part of the summer here. 
Tourists, too, find this a delightful place to stop. 

One enjoys wandering about Molded streets and 
looking at the flowers in the gardens and windows, 



THE RESORT HOTEL ' 






A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 31 

for the Norwegians are very fond of flowers. A visit is 
paid to the shops for carved wood souvenirs, and silver 
filigree; then a coast steamer takes us into Trondhjem 
Fjord to the quaint old city of Trondhjem—or Throne’s 
Home , as the name means—a twelve hours’ voyage. 

Just out from Trondhjem Fjord lies Hitteren, the 
largest island along the Norwegian coast south of the 
Arctic Circle. In the harbor are anchored ships from 
many countries, and steamers from Christiania, Bergen, 
Molde, and other Norwegian ports, while everywhere 
we see the quaint native fishing-boats patterned after 
the old Viking ships of long ago, with high prow and 
stern ending in a dragon’s head. 

Like Molde, Trondhjem Fjord is never frozen over, 
although it is several hundred miles farther north than 
Labrador. Trondhjem’s winter climate is as warm as 
that of Southern England. 

Our hotel is of painted wood with red-tiled roof. 
The bedrooms have no carpets and no light at night. 
We can easily do without a light, however, for are we 
not in the land of the midnight sun? If not exactly 
a midnight sun, we have at least a very late one, for 
at this season it does not set here until nearly eleven 
o’clock in the evening and rises again before two. 
While the sun itself is thus out of sight for about three 
hours, yet its rays light up the night so that one.can 
at any time read even the finest print. What beauti¬ 
ful colors delight our eyes at sunset! For a time the 
sky is red, then it grows pink, then orange, and next 
purple. Again at sunrise a beautiful pink glow ap¬ 
pears; this gradually changes to yellow, then greenish- 
blue, and then to the blue of a clear day. 


32 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


TRONDHJEM 

Trondhjem, a place of 30,000 inhabitants, is the third 
city in size in Norway. It has wide, well-paved 
streets. Its two principal streets cross, and from their 
intersection one may enjoy a grand view: on three 
sides are high mountains and on the fourth lies the 
beautiful sea. 

Here, too, is the marketplace. It has rows of stores 
and two rows of canvas-covered booths, where all the 
different wares are sold. Let us wait till the market 
opens. Peasants from the surrounding country come 
with their little wooden trunks filled with one or another 
of the dozen kinds of Norwegian cheese, with butter 
or vegetables, or coarse homespun woolen and linen 
goods. The women wear colored handkerchiefs tied 
over their light hair, bright knitted bands which cross 
over the shoulders, and full plaid skirts. The men 
wear bright jackets of coarse homespun , and heavy caps. 

The factories, paper-mills, shipyards, and ware¬ 
houses of Trondhjem are interesting, and show how 
its people occupy themselves. Trondhjem has, also, 
a marine arsenal and an Academy of Science. In the 
shops are many pieces of the filigree silver we 
have seen so often before, enamel silver spoons, scarf- 
pins bearing the Norwegian flag in enamel, carved 
tankards, pipes, beautiful furs, cloaks of eiderdown, 
and reindeer antlers so large that one must saw them 
in two to get them into a trunk. 

Here in the shops gentlemen always take off their 
hats until their purchases are made, then shake hands 
with the shopkeeper, who thanks them for buying of 
him. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 33 

Here is a beautiful cloak of brown eiderdown which 
the shopkeeper tells us is worth a thousand dollars. 
He explains that it is so expensive because it is made 
from the lining of the first nest, which is the finest. 

The eider duck builds her nest on one of the many 
little islands of the far North, and lines it with the 
beautiful fine down from her breast, which is light 
brown. The down is taken by the hunters, to be used 
for coats and capes. Then the nest has to be rebuilt, 
and this time the father bird lines it with the white 
down from his breast. This down is coarser, and is 
used for pillows and quilts; it is never so costly as the 
brown. After being robbed the second time the birds 
build their third nest, but if this is disturbed, they 
leave it and go away. The eider eggs are about four 
inches long, and have a greenish-blue shell. Some 
people eat them, but they have a strong flavor. 

We must go down to the station and see the train 
from Christiania come in. Until something over a 
year ago Trondhjem was the most northerly railway 
station in the world, but now there is one farther 
north on the Swedish border. The railroad from 
Trondhjem to Christiania is 350 miles long, and has 
done much to unite these two distant parts of 
Norway. 

As we peep into the sleeper, we cannot help con¬ 
trasting it with our sleeping-cars at home. The car 
itself is not much wider than an omnibus. The berth 
is formed of the narrow cushion-seats pulled together, 
with nothing but a tiny pillow as furnishings. There 
is no mattress, or even a blanket. The upper berth 
is nothing but a small hammock sagging down to within 


34 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



a foot of the lower berth—a difficult bed to climb into 
when the train is moving! It is uncomfortable, too, 
staying in such close quarters, for there seems barely 
room for a person without his traveling rug, or for the 
rug without himself! The rug would be a necessity 
in winter, for there is no way of heating the car. 

Although Trondhjem is not so beautifully situated 
as Molde, it is the most famous of all Norwegian towns. 


TRONDHJEM CATHEDRAL 

It has stood for a thousand years, and was, long ago, 
the city of the Norwegian kings. For this reason it 
is called the “ Cradle of the Kingdom.” Here still 
stands the cathedral where, since the days of King 
Olaf, a thousand years ago, the kings of Norway have 
been crowned. 

Trondhjem Cathedral is the finest church in Scan¬ 
dinavia, and one of the finest in Northern Europe. It 







A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


35 


is built of blue-gray marble, quarried near by. Long 
ago it was much damaged by fire and was for years 
left partly in ruins. Some years ago repairs were 
begun, and they are still being carried on. A part of 
the money raised at the lottery which built the Christi¬ 
ania opera-house has been given for restoring this 
beautiful old building. 

We pay our fee and go inside. Here are beautiful 
stone and wood carvings. At the south end of the 
altar is a cast of Thorwaldsen’s statue of the Saviour. 
There is a fine organ in the cathedral, and a deep 
well which is said to be connected with the sea. 

Two miles from Trondhjem is one of the finest 
falls in Norway, Store Lefos (Sto-ra La-fos), which 
is one hundred feet high with a great rock halfway 
up, around which the water dashes. 

A RICH FARM 

Trondhjem, like Christiania, is in one of the fertile 
regions of Norway. ' Everywhere around the city 
are grassy plots and flower-gardens. Off toward 
the sea stretch fields of rye, pastures, meadows, and 
forests of grand, dark pines. 

Let us visit one of the richer farms in the vicinity. 
We drive through avenues of trees to the house, 
which is 140 feet long and two stories high. Besides 
this there are the storehouse, the smokehouse, and 
also a kitchen, which is a separate building, while 
near by are barns and stables. These buildings are 
grouped together around a sort of courtyard. Here 
water is brought by pipes from the mountainside 
near by. 


36 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


We enter the living-room of the house. Here is a 
bed built in like the one at our first post-station. In 
fact, this is the kind of bed we shall find almost every¬ 
where in Norway. A bench extends around the room, 

but we are care¬ 
ful not to sit 
upon it until in¬ 
vited to do so, 
as this is the 
seat of honor. 
A rude table and 
chair, and hang¬ 
ing shelves are 
about the only 
furniture, except¬ 
ing a loom for 
weaving the 
coarse homespun 
for the family. 

The hay is 
brought to the 
barns in an odd way in this region! It comes slid¬ 
ing down to the barns on heavy wires from the 
soeter. 

The soeter is the hill-farm, such as nearly every 
rich farmer has at a distance up the mountainside. 
It is chiefly hay land and pasture. In early spring 
the cattle and sheep are taken to the soeter, to stay 
until late in the autumn. 

A log cabin with sod roof has been built on the 
mountainside and here some of the family (usually 
the older daughters and one of the boys) spend the 



THE FARMHOUSE 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


37 


summer. The fireplace is on the ground. There is 
no chimney—only a hole in the roof to let out the 
smoke. In cool weather, if the fire does not smoke too 
badly, even this hole is closed. The kettle is hung 
over the fire by a chain and pulley suspended 
from the roof. A bench extends around the 
room. 

The time of setting out for the soeter is a merry one. 
All is confus on and excitement. There are so many 
things to gather together—churn, milk-pails, kettles, 
frying-pan, 
cheese-moulds, 
cups, plates, 
and spoons. 

The flat-bread, 
coffee, bacon, 
sugar, and salt 
must be packed, 
and the meal to 
mix with the 
skim-milk for the 
calves must not 
be forgotten. 

And, too, the 
woolen yarn for 
stockings, and 
materials for embroidery, must find a place, to help 
fill in the time for busy fingers during the summer. 

The soeter is several miles away, but all walk. The 
father strides ahead, taking with him a long horn of 
birch-bark, called a lur , with which to call the cattle. 
Following close after comes the old horse with the 




38 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


load, and behind him the sheep, cows, goats, and pigs. 
The girls bring up the rear, with wooden yokes over 
their shoulders from which hang swinging pots, and 
pails of white pine. 

At the soeter the girls are very busy. As soon as 
the cows are sent to pasture for the day they begin 
the dairy work. One skims the cream and makes the 
butter, and another washes the pails and pans at 
the brook and feeds the calves. Then comes cheese¬ 
making. When enough butter and cheese have been 
made to send to market they are put into pails or 
done up in packages, and slid down the same wires as 
the great bundles of hay. Every moment not occupied 
with the dairy work is spent in knitting and em¬ 
broidering. 

If a stranger visits the soeter, one of the girls goes 
to meet h'm with a pail of milk. He is expected to 
say: “Do not waste it on me/’ but she insists and 
he takes a sip. She urges him to take more; he must 
drink all he can, or he will be considered impolite. 

At night the cattle, sheep, and horse must be fed. 
One of the girls puts on a belt from which hangs a horn 
of salt to feed them. 

The soeter is very interesting, and so is the farm, 
but the time has come for us to return to Trondhjem. 
Our hostess has prepared coffee and smor-brod , a great 
dainty, which is merely white bread spread thickly 
with butter and sugar. Norwegian etiquette requires 
that we must prepare to go without partaking of this 
feast. Our hostess begs us to stay, and so of course 
we are persuaded to remain long enough to taste her 
dainties. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


39 


TOWARD THE MIDNIGHT SUN 

And now the first part of our journey is over, and 
t he second begins. Trondhjem is the port from which 
steamers start for the voyage to the North Cape. We 
board our vessel, and are soon on our way to the most 
northern point of land in Europe. The North Cape 
is a four days’ sail from Trondhjem, but we shall ex¬ 
pect to take about two weeks for the voyage to the 
Cape and back, as we wish to make several stops. 
Although a long voyage, it will be a calm one, for we 
shall sail inside the fringe of islands which extends 
along the whole western coast of Norway. 

The waters inside this Island Rampart, though deeper 
than the ocean outside, are usually like those of a vast 
harbor. 

Most of the way we are in sight of the mainland. 
We sail past snow-capped mountains that seem to rise 
directly out of the sea, and down whose sides flow huge 
glaciers, ending in rushing falls which pour into the 
fjords. 

The day after leaving Trondhjem we come to Torgen 
(Tor'gen) Islands, where the steamer stops for a couple 
of hours, that passengers may see the tunnel through 
the solid rock of Torghattan Mountain. This tunnel 
is 500 feet up the mountainside and was washed out 
by the sea when all the lower part of the mountain 
was covered by the waves. This opening, through 
which one gets a beautiful view of the sea. is 600 feet 
long and 200 feet high. 

More fjords, and snow-capped mountains, and gla¬ 
ciers, and we come to the Lofoden (Lo-fo'den) Islands, 
extending 100 miles out into the Atlantic and 130 


40 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


miles from north to south. Just southwest of the is¬ 
lands is the famous Maelstrom, (Mal'strum) which is 
formed by the tide pouring through a narrow strait, 
where the water foams and hisses over deep sunken 
ledges. Our steamer does not sail near this, however, 
but keeps well toward the coast, where the scenery is 
particularly fine. Many tourists think this scenery 
grander even than that of Switzerland. 

The Lofodens are the center of the greatest cod 
fisheries in the world, for sea-cod are found only in 
certain places and at certain seasons. East of the 
islands are three banks beneath the sea. Here in the 
shallow water the cod gather from the middle of Janu¬ 
ary to the middle of April. Then, indeed, are the 
islands and the opposite coast a scene of activity! 
Cod-boats like the old viking boats are everywhere: 
3,500 boats and 25,000 fishermen come here every 
year. These fishing voyages are made in the long 
winter night, when, for part of the time at least, these 
men have no light except the beautiful northern lights 
and the bright stars. In spite of all difficulties they 
carry away 25,000,000 cod each year. 

The nets are left in the same place for several days 
at a time, for the cod pile themselves one above an¬ 
other, till they are often more than a hundred feet 
deep. The fishermen call these enormous schools of 
fish “cod mountains.” When they cast the nets they 
can feel the sinkers touch the fish. The cod are caught 
in the night, and each morning the nets are emptied, 
and mended if necessary. Sometimes a thousand fish 
are caught in a single night. 

The cod business is carried on under the direction % 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 41 

of the Government. Fishermen are forbidden to go 
out in stormy weather, and anyone who disobeys this 
rule is fined heavily. Even in pleasant weather the 
fishermen must 
wait until an 
officer gives the 
signal to start. 

But in spite of 
these precautions 
cod-fishing is a 
dangerous busi¬ 
ness and many 
lose their lives at 
it every season. 

Boats by the 
dozen are found 
bottom up, with 
knives stuck in 
them where the a mountain carriage 

men have tried to hold on. Some boats have 
handles along their keels, that the men may have 
something to cling to when capsized. 

The fishermen live in little huts along the shore, 
and here we see millions of codfish spread out, some¬ 
times upon the rocks, for the sun to dry, sometimes 
on wooden frames, where the air and sun both help 
in drying them. Many are split and salted and sent 
to France and Spain. In sheds along the beach the 
dried heads of the cod are hung. These are used for 
fertilizing the land, or are boiled with seaweed as feed 
for cattle. The oil made from the liver of the codfish 
is much used as medicine. 





42 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


The hills on the mainland bear only birches and firs, 
the winters being too severe for anything else to live. 
Here tar is made in great quantities from the firs, 
which contain much resin. Only the roots of trees 
that have been cut down are used. Sometimes after 
the firs are felled for timber or pulp, the roots remain 
in the ground for years. They are finally dug up 
and split. They are a deep red in color, very hard, 
and so rich that, when they are burned, the resin 
flows from them. 

When there are not barrels enough to hold the tar, 
it is kept for a time in holes in the ground. The 
barrels, before being sent away, are fastened at both 
ends to long poles, and then sent down the nearest 
mountain stream. Some years 100,000 barrels of tar 
are sent away. 

TROHSOE, THE CITY OF THE LAPPS 

North to Tromsoe (Trom'so-eh), a Lapp town and 
an important fishing station, is the next stage of our 
journey. In the harbor the bones of a huge whale 
are floating. It has been speared and cut into pieces, 
and its blubber is being boiled in large kettles in a 
rude factory on the shore. Here are anchored seven 
more monsters from sixty to sevent}^ feet long. Their 
jackets have been taken off, and men are busy 
removing the whalebone and the blubber, which 
latter will be carried to the factory. When all is 
done, the big bones of the carcases will be split up 
like wood. 

Tromsoe carries on a brisk trade with Hamburg 
and Russia in smoked herrings and other fish, whale 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 43 

meat and oil. Vessels from Russia, Germany and 
other countries are in the harbor. Every year the 
town sends out many ships to hunt the walrus and 
whale. The whale is found all the way from the 
Lofodens to the North Cape. 

Here in the harbor is a whaler. To one mast a 
barrel is fastened for a platform, and in this, on a 
whaling voyage, a man always stands to watch. 
When he locates a whale and gives the signal, a har¬ 
poon is shot from a cannon. When the harpoon en¬ 
ters the whale’s body, a cartridge explodes, killing 
the animal The four points of the harpoon stick 
into the whale and furnish the means of drawing it 
ashore. From April to August is the whaling season. 

Let us visit the factory where the whale-oil is pre¬ 
pared. The blubber, and the flesh, which is much 
like pork, are' cut up into pieces by machinery and 
put into boilers, to be tried out. From the boilers 
the oil is run through pipes into big tanks. Often 
one whale will yield sixt}^ or seventy casks of refined 
oil. 

Not all the flesh is tried into oil. The best is canned 
and marked with French labels and sold as a delicacy. 
Some is dried and smoked or made into sausage. The 
scraps left in the boilers are dried and ground into 
feed for cattle, resembling ground coffee in appear¬ 
ance The bones are used as a fertilizer for the fields. 
The whalebone—which hangs from the upper part 
of the mouth in shreds to help the whale hold in his 
mouth the food he gathers—is trimmed and cut into 
uniform lengths for the market. It is then washed 
in a solution of soda and spread out to dry. This 


44 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


whalebone (or baleen, as it is called in commerce), 
is very expensive. It is worth at the present time 
$15,000 a ton. All the products of the whale render 
a large one worth from $1,200 to $15,000. 

Tromsoe is often called the “City of the Lapps/’ 
not only from the number of these people in the town 
itself, but also from the Lapp encampment near by. 
Tromsoe, however, is not the only home of the Lapps. 
All that part of Norway and Sweden and northwestern 
Russia which lies within the Arctic Circle is called 
Lapland. There are in Norway alone nearly 17,000 
Laplanders. The name Lapp seems to come from 
Lappu , land's end folk. What a fitting name! A 
brave people they must be, to make their home in 
this land of barren rocks, snow, stunted pines, birches 
and moss. To the north only birches can grow, 
and these are little more than shrubs. It is only by 
keeping their foliage as small as possible that trees 
or shrubs are enabled to live at all, for the whole 
year’s growth must be finished in a few weeks. 

In the spring when the ice-sheet breaks up, the 
waters swarm with fish, and the reindeer-moss springs 
up from the almost barren rock. But for these, the 
Lapps must either perish or seek a better country, 
for the fish and moss provide them with nearly all 
they have. The moss is in some parts almost the 
only food of the reindeer. This wonderful animal is 
as dear to the Laplander as is the camel to the Arab. 
It furnishes milk, from which he makes butter and 
cheese. Its flesh yields him food and its skin clothing 
and tent-covering. 

There are two classes of Lapps, the Mountain Lapps 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


45 



LAPLANDERS 


and the Sea Lapps. The mountain dwellers are a 
roving people, because the reindeer-moss and little 
patches of grass are so scarce that they are soon eaten 
up and new pastures must be found. In the summer 
the deer seek the water, for even in this cold coun- 



46 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


try mosquitoes are very annoying. The Sea Lapps, 
although not wandering like the Mountain Lapps, 
have at least two or three homes. In the winter they 
move to the coast for the sake of the cod-fisheries. 
In the summer they settle upon the banks of some 
river or at the head of a fjord. 

Here and there along the streets of Tromsoe we 
see Lapps, but they mingle little with the Norwegians, 
preferring to live by themselves. Some have fur 
clothing, while others have adopted something a 
step nearer the dress of their neighbors, and wear 
white woolen jackets with red, blue and yellow stripes. 
They are, however, very untidy. The fur caps they 
wear resemble inverted saucepans. 

Some of the Laplanders on the streets of Tromsoe 
have come from the encampment outside of town, 
to sell the trinkets they make. We look over the 
wares of one and find knife-handles and other articles 
carved from reindeer horns and walrus tusks, white- 
bear and reindeer skins, and sealskin boots, bags, 
and purses, as well as the eye-sockets, ears, and sec¬ 
tions of the backbone of the whale! Curious souvenirs 
some of them are, if not altogether beautiful. 

An hour’s brisk walk brings us to the Lapp encamp¬ 
ment, and such an odd village as it is! Everything 
is very rude and simple. Some families live in tents 
of reindeer skin stretched over poles, with a curtain 
for a door and a hole in the top to let out the smoke. 
Others have huts of stone and earth shaped like an 
Eskimo hut, with a rude wooden door. 

Let us enter one of the latter. It is about twelve 
feet high and eight or nine feet in diameter. The 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


47 


sods are held in place on the framework by stones. 
All around the inside there is a raised step of hard 
mud. This serves for tables, chairs, and beds, for on 
it the family eat, sit, and sleep. Their covering at 
night is a reindeer hide. In the middle of the hut is 
a pile of stones, which, when heated, form the stove. 
The fire on the stones is made of juniper twigs, and 
over it hangs a kettle suspended from three sticks set 
up together. 

We have been told that if we wish a welcome, a few 
trifling presents are to be taken along. As soon as we 
show them, the best place in the hut is offered us. This 
is exactly opposite the door. If there had been no 
gifts, then we should have been kept near the door, 
while our host questioned us about our native land. 
Now coffee and reindeer milk and flesh are offered us 
by the father, who always divides the meat among the 
members of the family. 

The Lapps are small people. Four feet and a half 
for women, and five feet for men, is a good height. 
Some have dark hair and blue eyes, but many have 
light brown hair and greenish gray eyes. The nose 
is flat, the mouth large, and the skin yellow and smoke- 
dried. 

The Lapps’ clothing is chiefly reindeer-skin worn 
with the hair inside, though some of the people wear 
coarse homespun woolen shirts. The skin clothing lasts 
for years, and is often handed down from one genera¬ 
tion to another. The deerskin moccasins have sharp- 
pointed toes and are bound with red. One could 
scarcely tell a woman’s dress from a man’s except by 
the ength of her jacket and sometimes by the head- 



48 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



dress she wears, 
which resem¬ 
bles somewhat 
the old Greek 
helmets. When 
the helmet is 
not worn, she 
turns her hair 
up in an odd 
little knot. 

Here against 
one side of the 
hut stand the 
skis on which 
the father in 
winter tracks 
the elk or 
bear—one of the 
few pastimes 
of these hardy 
people. If he 
is so fortunate as to kill a bear, then indeed he is 
looked upon as a hero, and besides being feasted for 
three days by the whole village, he ever after wears 
as a sort of trophy an odd decoration in his cap. 

The gayest thing in the hut is the baby’s cradle, 
which hangs by a deerskin strap around the mother’s 
neck. The boat-shaped cradle is itself made of skin, 
with a sort of hood over the baby’s head. Into it the 
little Lapp is fastened by flaps laced together at the 
middle. His blanket is soft rabbit-fur. 

When the Lapp family goes to church, the father 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


49 


digs a hole in the snow outside the church and into 
it baby is dropped. Then the snow is piled over him 
except for a little hole through which he may breathe, 
and there he sleeps cozily till the father and mother 
are ready to start for home. 

Outside the hut nets are spread to dry. Here, too, 
are thrown fish-heads and whatever food the family 
and dogs have left. The Laplander loves his dogs 
and always shares his meat and porridge with them. 
Without these faithful animals he could never keep 
his herd of reindeer together, for often the deer must 
go far in search of moss and hay. 

The herd of the Tromsoe encampment numbers be¬ 
tween four and five thousand The dogs must help 
keep all these animals in one place until all are moved 
to new pastures, when the dogs must drive them. 
It is the dogs, also, that keep away the savage wolves 
always lurking about watching for a chance to kill a deer. 

Most of the deer are now gone with their keepers 
and the dogs many miles inland, but enough are left 
to supply the encampment with milk, butter and 
cheese. The herd has just been driven in, for this 
is milking day. The reindeer, as you know, are 
milked but twice a week, and in some cases only once. 

One of the women throws a lasso over one horn 
of the deer to be milked and fastens it, and the animal 
stands quite still. A wooden scoop is held in one 
hand and the milking is done with the other. The 
scoop seems a very little dish to hold all the milk, but 
some deer, we must remember, give less than a coffee- 
cupful of milk It is so rich, however', that water 
must be added before it is used. 


50 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


The milk is poured into a wooden keg with a cover, 
and a skin bag is filled for those who are to take the 
home herd out to pasture to-morrow. Little butter 
is made, and that little is almost like tallow. The 
milk is mostly made into cheese, or dried: For dry¬ 
ing, the milk is heated and the cream skimmed into 
a bladder and hung up to dry. The dried cream is 
called kappa , and is considered a great dainty. Stirred 
into hot water, it forms a porridge. In winter the 
milk is frozen into solid blocks and kept for months. 
For the cheese, rennet is added to the milk. When 
curded and dried it is packed in round wooden boxes 
and hung up in the smoke of the hut to be kept for 
winter. It, too, is considered a delicacy. 

The Lapps have but few table articles; the most 
important are their spoons, which are either of silver 
or carved reindeer horn. Each member of the family 
carries his spoon in a little sack, and at meal time 
takes it out with care. When the meal is over all the 
washing it gets is given it with the owner’s tongue, 
after which it is slipped back into its bag until the next 
meal. What an easy way of washing dishes! The 
plates are treated in quite as novel a way, being wiped 
with the fingers. 

The short summer is a very busy time for the Lapps. 
The hay for the deer must be cut and dried. It is 
placed in little stacks ten or twelve feet high with 
poles run through it to prevent its being blown away. 
All the wood must be cut in the summer, and the 
re’ndeer moss gathered before the heavy snows fall. 
The fish, too, must be caught and salted for winter 
use, and the shoe-grass dried. This shoe-grass the 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


51 


Lapps put into their deerskin moccasins when obliged 
to travel over rough, stony ground, and also n winter 
to keep out the cold. 

Besides all this, the pine-bark salt must be prepared 
while a hole can be dug in the ground. These people 

go south and 
gather the inner 
bark of the pine- 
tree, separate it 
into several thin 
layers, and dry 
it in the sun. It 
is then put into 
boxes made of 
the fresh outer 
bark of the pine 
and buried for 
a da y in the 
earth while afire 
is made over it. 
When dug up the 
bark has turned a bright red, and tastes sweet. It 
is used like salt, to season food. 

The Lapps raise a few vegetables and fruits, but 
these cannot be depended upon. In the gardens 
here we notice rhubarb, currants and blackberries, 
radishes, small potatoes and barley. Fruit bearc 
only one year n three, and often the barley does not 
get ripe, so short is the summer. The ice breaks up in 
May or June and freezes again in September. Nine 
or ten weeks must see the rye, oats, and barley both 
planted and harvested. 





52 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


When the Laplander moves, as he does so often, 
the re'ndeer must carry what tents the encamp¬ 
ment possesses. It is harder to move in summer 
than n winter, for then the deer must carry the 
loads on the r backs instead of drawing them in sledges. 
On curious pack-saddles, made of two pieces of wood 
rounded to fit- the deer’s back, the load is balanced. 
Several loaded deer are then tied together. Before 
setting out, the master whispers in the leader’s ear 
the place to which they are going, and the stops to 
be made on the way, firmly believing the animal un¬ 
derstands it all. 

The reindeer draws his master from place to place 
on a low boat-shaped sledge. It is lined with furs 
and is usually large enough only for one, or at most 
two. The harness is of deerskin and is very simple. 
Sometimes it is merely a skin strap fastened to one 
horn for a rein and a collar with straps which fasten 
to the sledge. In spite of its awkward appearance, 
the reindeer is a swift and sturdy traveler, often 
going a hundred miles a day. How fortunate this 
is for the Laplanders, for their winter home is far 
south, in Sweden, where moss is more plentiful. They 
once went to Russia, but there the deer were taken 
from them, and had to be bought back at auction. 
In Sweden, as in Norway, these poor people are more 
kindly treated. 

But Tromsoe, with its Lapps, is only one of the 
interesting points of this Norwegian tour, and Ham- 
merfest, the most northern town of the world, awaits 
us From Tromsoe to Hammerfest is almost a day’s 
journey by steamer. The coast is very dreary and 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


53 


desolate. Glaciers appear often, and the trees have 
become ewer and smaller On'y small birches and 
junipers a e to be seen. The grass grows in patches 
little bigger than a newspaper; yet these plots are 
called meadows. Does anyone wonder that every 
blade of grass is so carefully gathered? 

The air becomes colder, and here and there we 
see blocks of ice floating in the water. Soon we 
pass genuine icebergs, and after a little are able to 
see whence they 
come. Down one 
of these dreary 
mountains flows 
a glacier, such 
as we have often 
seen since leav¬ 
ing the Lofodens. 

But in this high 
atitude the air is 
not warm enough 
to melt it before 
it reaches the 
foot of the 
mountain, so it 
slowly slides 
down into the sea and there breaks up into icebergs. 
This is the Jokel (Yo'kel) glacier, and the only one 
in Norway which reaches the ocean before melting. 

Away up here in this region of perpetual snow, 
of glaciers, and dreary mountains, is a copper mine. 
It is the most northern one in the world successfully 
worked. Five hundred men are employed here. 





54 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


THE NORTHERNMOST TOWN IN THE WORLD 

And now we steam into the harbor of Hammerfest, 
the most northern town in the world. How different 
from reading about it n our geographies is the actual 
be’ng here! There are ful y fifty vessels in the har¬ 
bor, flying English, German, Russian, Swedish, and 
American flags, as well as Norwegian craft of every 
description. Here is an English vessel unloading 
coal, there a Russian one from Archangel which 
has bravely plowed its way through the stormy Arctic 
seas with its cargo of flour. I will return laden 
with cod-liver oil. Hammerfest has a thriving oil 
trade with Spitzbergen and Russia. 

Here are other vessels taking on cargoes of dried 
or salted cod, cod-liver oil, sealskins or whale oil, 
for Hammerfest is one of the chief fish-markets of 
the world. Here are brought not only the cod, whale, 
and other fish caught by Hammerfest fishermen, 
but also a goodly number of those caught much 
farther south. Everywhere along the shore here, as 
in Tromsoe and the Lofodens, are fish hung up on 
frames to dry. Indeed, there are fish everywhere! 
The beach is covered w th them, and even the air 
smells fishy. In Hammerfest one eats fish, drinks 
fish, smells fish, and breathes fish. If there were no 
fish, there would be no Hammerfest. 

While Hammerfest is only about sixty miles from 
the North Cape, yet its harbor is sheltered and its 
shipping safe. Although a thousand miles north 
of Christiania—whose harbor, we found, ’s frozen 
four months in the year—the port of Hammerfest 
is never frozen, for even here the warmth of the Gu'f 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


55 


Stream is felt. This, however, is about the limit of 
its influence, for not far to the north it is lost amid 
the Arctic ice. This ocean current brings these 
.northern dwellers a gift from southern lands in the 
driftwood it bears upon its bosom—trunks of palm 
trees and giant ferns. 

Away up here is a town of 3,000 people, yet after 
all not so far remote from the rest of the world, for 
a telegraph line gives direct communication with 
Christiania, and so with foreign countries. Here, 
too, are schools, a church, and a weekly newspaper. 
On the streets we see fishermen, sailors, Russian 
captains with long beards, and Finns and Norwegians 
in the dress of other lands. 

The spot on which the town is built, however, 
is barren. There are no trees—only bare rock. The 
streets are narrow. The principal one winds to suit 
the curve of the shore. There are many warehouses 
and a few fine houses, though most of them are of 
wood. 

Hammerfest has a hospital with fifteen beds. This 
is especially for fishermen, whose dangerous calling 
takes them out in the severest season of the year. 
Nuns, who have given their lives to this good work, 
are the nurses. Sometimes, too, the hospital ship 
of the British Missionary Society comes into the 
harbor. Its cost was $50,000, and it is used solely 
in the great fishing region which stretches for six 
hundred miles around the North Cape and the west 
coast of Norway. Last year over eleven thousand 
patients were treated, and forty-five tons of good 
books were distributed among them. 


56 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


In this most northern town is the meridian shaft 
which tells the number of degrees between it and 
that other meridian shaft at the mouth of the Danube 
River. It is a round granite column with a globe 
resting above its capital. 

We must, of course, catch a glimpse of the midnight 
sun, which does not once set from May 13th to July 
29th, and which, when once he hides his face, does 
not appear from November 21st to January 21st. 
But this long night is relieved in Hammerfest by the 
electric light, which is kept constantly burning during 
this season, although, as at Tromsoe, the sky is no 
darker than ours at twilight. The beautiful Aurora 
Borealis, too, lights' up the winter sky with its stream¬ 
ers of rosy light. 

Directions here are quite as confusing as the time 
of day. To see the sun in the north at midnight, 
watch it ascend without having dipped out of sight, 
and circle about in the heavens through the day, is 
bewildering to one accustomed to see it rise in the 
east and set in the west. 

When this summer sun does smile upon the North¬ 
land, all life quickly responds. Plants sometimes 
grow three inches in a single day. Vegetables and 
fruits mature in six weeks. Flowers do not close 
in sleep. The sea-gulls and other birds fly all night 
upon their way. We have even seen a gentleman light 
his cigar by the sun's rays with the aid of a sun glass. 

It is three o'clock when our steamer leaves Ham¬ 
merfest, for it is a seven-hour voyage to the North 
Cape, and we must be there in time to row ashore 
from the vessel before midnight. We wish to stay 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


57 


only long enough to see the midnight sun from this 
most northern rim of Europe, for the Cape and its 
island are uninhabited except for the sea-fowl that 
make it their home. 

The waters of the Arctic Ocean are clear and of a 
beautiful blue. The air is pure, and we are always 
within sight of glaciers. The wind is very strong, 
so that it is difficult to walk from stern to prow of our 
ship. Regularly, even during the winter, freight steam¬ 
ers make the trip around the Cape to Vladso, on the 
Arctic Coast. It seems wonderful that their crews 
can endure the terrible cold and storms of the winter 
night off this dreary shore. 

The North Cape is on the Mageroe (Ma'ger 6-eh), 
the last island of Norway’s Rampart. It is washed by 
the long, sweeping waves of the Atlantic, and by the 
stormy waters of the Arctic. The Cape is a mass 
of bluish-gray slate rock 1,000 feet high, with sides 
deeply cleft and sloping directly down into the sea. 
Down its side slowly moves a glacier. 

There is no wharf at which the steamer may tie up, 
so we are rowed ashore in a small boat, and clamber 
over the rocks till we come to the foot of the cliff on 
the east side. Here is a path to the top beside which 
a strong rope is passed through iron rings fastened 
to the rock by heavy staples. The first part of the 
way is easy climbing, but soon it becomes very steep 
and difficult. The last part of the ascent is over a 
mossy slope. The way to the summit is marked by 
a line of white posts joined by a wire. 

Off to the east is Bird Island, with its cliff more 
than a thousand feet high. Here the sea-gulls and 




TIIE SUN AT MIDNIGHT, NORTH CARE 












A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 59 

other birds gather by thousands on the rocky cliffs, 
and utter the most deafening cries when disturbed. 
To the north lies the dark Polar Sea which seems to 
have such a charm for explorers. This is about as 
far north as any but these brave men ever attempt 
to go. 

Although the Cape is only about eighteen degrees 
from the North Pole, we find here a few bluebells, for¬ 
get-me-nots, and bright yellow Arctic poppies, along 
with the dwarf-birch, which, though a hundred years 
old, seldom grows more than a foot in height. We 
must remember,, however, that it is now the summer 
season and this is the coast where still a tiny breath 
of the Gulf Stream's warmth reaches, brought by the 
sea winds. In winter the north of Norway, especially 
at a distance from the coast, is a most desolate region. 

On the top of the cliff is a brown granite column 
to mark King Oscar's visit here many years ago, 
and a beacon to commemorate the German Emperor's 
visit a number of years later. 

Now a rocket is fired from the steamer, to tell us 
that if we wish to see the midnight sun from this far 
northern spot we must be watchful. As we turn to 
the north, there, seemingfy about twenty feet above 
the horizon, the sun rests for a few moments, then 
slowly rises to begin another day. We hasten down 
the cliff and back to the steamer. 

Before we know it the four days of the return voyage 
are at an end, and our vessel again enters Trondhjem 
Harbor. We have finished the second part of our 
Norwegian tour. The beautiful fjord land, the his¬ 
toric ground of Norway, now awaits us. Molde 


GO 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


Fjord comes again into view, and here the steamer 
is about ready to start for the south. 


GEIRANGER 



To the south of Molde lies Geiranger Fjord, one 
of the grandest in Norway. The fjord is not so 
long as many, and is very narrow, being nowhere 
more than a few yards wide; yet its sides rise almost 
perpendicularly to a height of 5,000 feet. So steep 
are their gray granite slopes that seemingly a cat 
could scarcely climb them. At certain points a stone 

dr.opped from the 
top of the preci¬ 
pice must fall 
directly into the 
fjord. 

Think of sailing 
for miles through 
this awful chasm! 

Geiranger 
abounds in water¬ 
falls—even in this 
land of falls the 
fjord is famed for 
its great number. 
We are seldom 
out of sight of 
them, and often several are to be seep at once. 
Some are lost in spray before they reach the 
fjord, while others seem to drop directly from 
the clouds. Flere is a beautiful one. Its streams 
cross and recross, separate and unite many times, 


WATERFALLS EVERYWHERE 




A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


61 


forming a network of silver threads like a bit 
of rare lacework spread on the side of the dark 
precipice. On the opposite wall is Pulpit Rock, 
and very much like an old-fashioned pulpit it looks. 

Here and there, on a little ledge of these steep 
mountainsides, some brave Norseman has built his 
home. A wearisome climb it must be up the path 
for two thousand feet or more; yet the farmer is 
obliged, we are sure, to come down this steep cliff 
often, for here at its foot is his boathouse, while just 
outside is moored a neat boat with quaint red 
sails. His boat is as necessary to him as his log hut, 
for his poor little farm alone will not support his 
family, and he must eke out a living by fishing. 

HERRING FISHERIES 

From Geiranger Fjord to the southern coast of 
Norway stretches the great herring ground. This 
fjord region is as famed for herring as the Lofodens 
for cod. The herring, like the cod, is mostly sent 
to other countries, while the mackerel and haddock 
are kept for home use. 

There are three herring seasons—spring, summer, 
and winter. The winter is the most important season. 
The herring do not stay in the same place throughout 
the season. When a shoal appears, word is sent to 
the fishermen. To discover their presence in the 
daytime a submarine telescope four or five feet long 
is placed in the water. At night a piece of lead is 
fastened to a cord and let down into the sea. The 
fish can be felt moving it as they swim about. Then 
boats are launched, and the herring season begins. 


62 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


Thousands of men and hundreds upon hundreds of 
fishing boats are engaged each year, and each year 
millions of herring are sent to other countries. Quanti¬ 
ties of the herring exported are pickled. 

Salmon also is found in abundance in the fjord- 
country, chiefly in the rivers. The salmon fishing 
is largely in the hands of foreigners. These fish are 
very shy and hard to catch. To decoy them, white 
marks and stripes are painted on the rocks along the 
fjords and rivers, and planks painted white are floated 
in the water, to imitate waterfalls; for the waters near 
the falls are the favorite haunt of the salmon. They 
are then caught in nets. 

Salmon is a favorite dainty in Norway, where it is 
called lax . On the steamers and in the hotels of the 
larger towns salmon is served in all sorts of ways— 
boiled, fried, broiled, smoked, in salad, jelly, and 
pudding. 

THE LARGEST GLACIER IN THE WORLD 

To the south of Geiranger lies another wonderful re¬ 
gion, a region of fjord and mountain and glacier. Af¬ 
ter sailing to the head of beautiful Eid Fjord we leave 
the steamer and visit Justedal (Yoos'teh-dal), a 
mountain nearly 8,000 feet in height which bears 
upon its summit the greatest snow-mantle of all 
Europe. Think of 600 square miles of snow that 
never melts! From this vast snow mass—called 
the Justedalsbrae—several huge glacier streams flow 
down the mountainsides in different directions. 

This glacier of Justedalsbrae is six times as large as 
the largest Swiss glacier. Like most Norwegian gla- 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


63 


ciers, it lies lower than the Swiss glaciers, and so is 
easier to reach, for there is less mountain-climbing 
necessary. The reason for this is easily seen. The 
climate of Norwegian valleys is so much colder than 
that of the Swiss that the glaciers flow much farther 



IN A NORWEGIAN FJORD 


down the mountainsides before melting. The ice 
of this glacier almost reaches the sea. 

There is a constant groaning sound made bv the 
glacier, caused by the breaking apart of huge 
blocks of ice in its slow decent. What seems at a 
distance like a little bank of snow is probably a wall 
of ice eighty or a hundred feet high. What look like 
wrinkles to us are crevasses or chasms hundreds of feet 




64 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

deep, and the seeming puff of smoke which now and 
then comes from it is really an avalanche of snow and 
ice. Along its edge are rocks and boulders which it 
has torn from the solid rock wall of the mountain 
on its way down. We have no wish to venture over 
this dangerous ice-river with its yawning gaps and 
falling ice masses. Some travelers do venture, how¬ 
ever. There are men who act as guides, and who seem 
utterly fearless in these dangerous places. 

SOGNE (SOG'NEH) 

To one who loves grand and awful scenery, Sogne 
Fjord, to the south of Eid, is the gem of all Norwegian 
fjords. It is the longest and deepest fjord in Nor¬ 
way, and sends off the greatest number of arms. The 
depth of the fjord is in some parts 4,000 feet. Then 
think of sailing for a hundred miles between per¬ 
pendicular cliffs in many places 5,000 feet high! 
The barrenness of Sogne’s rocky shores adds much 
to their solemnity and grandeur. 

Everywhere are deep gorges filled with masses 
of snow, or with mighty glaciers which almost reach 
the fjord before melting. Often there is no sign of 
life anywhere upon the steep shore. The mountains 
rise silent, grim, and forbidding! The stillness op¬ 
presses one. Seldom do we see pasture lands, orchards, 
or cornfields. 

Now we enter one of the finger-tips of this arm 
of the sea, which ends in the famous Laerdal Gorge. 
We leave the steamer and ride up this ravine. Here 
the Laerdal River has cut its way amid cliffs which 
rise-on either side to a height of nearly 5,000 feet. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


65 


The space between these mountainsides is scarcely 
wide enough for the river as it dashes and foams 
along, almost deafening one with its roar. The only 
place for a road through this narrow valley is on the 
brow of the steep precipice. Here a roadway has 
been cut out of the solid rock and flanked by boulders. 

When this roadway was laid out, the engineers 
had to be lowered over the cliffs by ropes. It is 
enough to take one’s breath away to be whirled 
around the sharp turns of the river while driving. 
On one side are towering cliffs, on the other the preci¬ 
pice at the foot of which the Laerdal seethes and 
foams. 

Upon emerging from this valley, on our return, 
we are glad to stop for a rest at the little village where 
the river empties into the fjord, for this scenery, so 
grand and awful, causes a terrible strain upon one’s 
nerves. And there is grander to come. 

A few more hours on Sogne bring us to that 
branch called Naerofjord, counted the most sublime 
of all these ocean arms. Here we sail beneath 
towering cliffs where a deep twilight surrounds us. 
The captain tells us that for most of the year the 
sun never shines down into these awful depths. On 
looking up we can see only a narrow rift of sky like 
a ribbon floating far above us. To gain some idea 
of the vastness of these mountains one must com¬ 
pare them with objects upon their sides. Cattle 
grazing here seem to the naked eye like mice, while 
a church steeple appears no more than a foot high. 

So winding is the Naerofjord that often the cliffs 
seem to close before us and we imagine the head of 


66 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


the fjord is reached, but a sudden turn in our course 
opens up vast distances beyond. The waters are 
a beautiful green. It is not known to what the color 
is due—whether to their great depth or to the clear¬ 
ness of the air. 
Even the breasts 
of the white sea¬ 
gulls seem tinted 
with green when 
they fly near the 
surface of the 
water. 

After a few 
hours on Naero- 
fjord we come to 
its head, where 
the fjord chasm 
is continued in 
N a e r o cl a 1, or 
Naero Valley. 
This valley, also, is so deep that the sun reaches it 
for only a few hours even on the longest day of 
summer, and most of the year not at all. 

The valley is really a part of the fjord, only with¬ 
out water. Once the ocean must have entered it, 
as now it enters the fjord. In places the mountains 
rise five thousand feet without a tree or blade of 
grass upon their sides. One curious mountain is 
called the Jordalsnut. It is shaped like a giant 
thimble, and glitters in the sunlight, for here the 
valley widens a little. Up the valley winds a road¬ 
way, blasted out of the solid rock in places, and built 



THE VALLEY 




A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 67 

up everywhere with masonry. This road is so steep 
for horses that tourists, if able to do so, are required 
to climb it on foot. 

There is a mighty waterfall on each side of the 
road here, and although the valley winds and turns 
constantly, one or the other fall is in sight for a great 
distance. These two waterfalls are the most beauti¬ 
ful of the nineteen that we have counted in the Naero- 
fjord. Though surpassing even the celebrated Giess- 
bach in Switzerland, they are not looked upon as 
equal to several others in Norway. 

Not far from the Naerodal is a road with nearly 
as interesting scenery as this valley itself. The 
drive has twenty-seven turns in only a short dis¬ 
tance, and at each turn some new and beautiful 
picture comes into view. 

BERGEN 

From Sogne we pass on to Bergen, the “Rainy 
City.” It is said that out of the 365 days in the 
year, Bergen has 134 rainy days, 26 snowy days, 
and 40 or more foggy ones! For this reason the 
neighborhood is sometimes laughingly called “The 
Fatherland of Drizzle.” 

There are many amusing stories told about Ber¬ 
gen’s rainy weather. A Bergen seaman once came 
into his native port when the sun was shining, and, 
never having seen it shine there before, thought he 
must be in the wrong place, and immediately sailed 
out again. Bergen horses, it is claimed, shy at a 
person who does not carry an umbrella. It is said, 
too, that a rain-coat and umbrella are the first presents 
given to a child born in this “weeping city.” 



w 

o 

05 


» 












A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


69 


The town is built upon a hill sloping directly from 
the harbor. The locality is quite different from the 
hills around Sogne, for it has green meadows and 
orchards. A lake on this hillside supplies the city 
with water, through pipes. 

Bergen harbor is long and narrow and has a line 
of wharves and warehouses for nearly its whole length. 
Bergen is the second city of Norway in population 
and is Norway’s chief fish-market for all the world. 

The boats which bring the fish from Lofoden Islands 
and other points at the north have very high bows, 
so that when the fish is piled high about the mast the 
helmsman can still see the bows to steer by. They 
usually have a large square sail, gaily colored. This 
is soaked in a preparation of oil and tar, to prevent 
mildew. 

Ships from nearly every country in the world are 
loading or unloading at the wharves. The cargo 
they bring may be flour, grain, coal, machinery, 
cotton, or livestock, but the cargo they take away 
is sure to be herring, dried or salted cod, cod-liver 
oil, or whale-oil. Hundreds of thousands of barrels 
of pickled herring are exported each year. 

The warehouses in which the fish are stored stand 
very close together. They have sharp-pointed, red- 
tiled roofs, and are very old and quaint. The first 
warehouses in Bergen were built hundreds of years 
ago by the Germans. Merchants of the famous 
Hanseatic League came here and gained control of 
all the wood and fish trade of Norway, compelling 
all Norwegians to send their fish first to Bergen. 
Thousands of German traders from Hamburg, Lubeck 


70 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


and Cologne came to Bergen to exchange their wares 
for fish and wood. 

The Hanseatic League, let us remember, was in 
those days very powerful. Although the League 
has not existed for centuries, yet the fish-trade still 
centers in this quaint old city. Germany still car¬ 
ries on a rich trade with Bergen and supplies Norway 
with most of its foreign goods. 

Here stands one of the old Hanse houses of the 
fourteenth century. Its second story contains curios 
of those olden times. The scales and weights are 
of two kinds—one kind for buying and one for selling. 
Here also are ancient German clocks and watches 
patterned after the “Nuremberg eggs,” lanterns, 
snuff-boxes, candlesticks, drinking cups and tankards, 
machines for cutting cabbage, and lamps in which cod- 
liver oil was burned. The third story has offices 
and bedrooms. These beds are even more curious 
than the Dutch beds. They are like the berths of 
a ship, closed on one side with hinged or sliding doors. 
On the other side they have shutters opening to a 
passage beyond, so that the maids could make the 
beds without going into the rooms. 

Early each Saturday morning the fish-market opens. 
Let us visit it. On the shore 150 or 200 fishing- 
boats are drawn up, and there the owners cry their 
wares. All Bergen must be out to buy fish, judging 
by the crowd around the railing. There seems to 
be more cod than anything else, but we see some 
fine large halibut. Some must surely weigh 150 
pounds. These are cut in large slices, as steak is 
cut in our home markets. Besides the cod and 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


71 


halibut, there are herrings, flounders, and haddocks. 
And what wrangling there is over prices! The 
buyers try to beat down the fishermen, and the fisher¬ 
men put up their prices so they may be beaten down 
and still sell for a good price. The two even come 
to angry words sometimes, but they do not lay it 
up against each other. The prices really are ridicu¬ 
lously low; for a small sum one can buy fish enough 
to last a family a week. 

But fish is not the only thing sold on fish-market 
day. Here are long tables of vegetables, fruit and 
flowers. Here 
and there are 
rosy girls with 
firkins of butter 
swinging from a 
wooden yoke 
over the shoul¬ 
der. A pint of 
berries, a bunch 
of flowers, a 
string of onions, 
is often all one 
person will bring, 
yet nothing is too 
small to be sold 
at market. There 
is no time wasted waiting to sell these trifles, for 
while the good women wait for a customer, they sit 
and knit stockings or darn old ones. They seem 
almost as busy as the German women of the Black 
Forest, who plait straw as they walk along the streets. 



GOING TO MARKET 






72 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


Such quaint dress as one sees here! Wooden 
shoes-, with no heel and only a little toe, are worn by 
the peasants. In front of us is a young man in knee- 
breeches, a jacket with open rolling collar, and a 
quaint hat. Over there we see a group of girls in 
gay scarlet petticoats and black jackets. But here 
is the queerest dress of all. It is the Saeterdal cos¬ 
tume of trousers that reach to the arm-pits, and a 
short waistcoat trimmed with rows and rows of 
silver buttons. The fish-women wear blue woolen 
gowns, gaudy handkerchiefs, thick mufflers, and a 
round cap with a white band around the forehead. 

Bergen is a busy city. It has churches, banks, 
hotels, shops, museums, art-galleries, theaters and 
parks. Its streets are noisy with the many drays, 
wagons, and carriages rattling over the stony streets. 
People are hurrying this way and that. Children 
are on their way to school with books in knapsacks 
thrown over their backs. 

Bergen has excellent schools. In the common 
schools church-historv and the catechism are taught. 
Besides the common branches, the boys have athletics 
and military drill to prepare them for the army. 
School-hours are from nine to twelve and from three 
to five. The industrial school is for girls between 
the ages of seven and sixteen. One half the time is 
given to study, and the other half to needlework. 
It is interesting indeed to see five hundred girls 
hemming, darning, cutting garments, and knitting! 
They are very ambitious to learn, and very pains¬ 
taking with their work. 

After a day of sight-seeing we are glad to get back 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 73 

to our rooms and rest. Our hotel is a roomy two- 
story building with a steep red-tiled roof, and dia- 
mond-paned windows which open out and have boxes 
of flowers in them. The room given us is clean, but 
very plain. The chief thing in it is the bed. And 
such an array of pillows and coverings we have never 
seen before. The bed itself is small—very small. 
There is first a mattress, while on that, at the 
head, is a wedge-shaped pillow sloping from eight 
or nine inches in thickness to one inch. On top of 
this is a broad, square pillow and over all a sheet too 
small to tuck in (Norwegian sheets never tuck in), 
another pillow, loose blankets ready at any moment 
to slip off, and finally a fourth pillow, a coverlet and 
an eider-down puff! What work it must be to make 
a Bergen bed and be sure that each pillow is in its 
proper place! 

For dinner there are ten kinds of cheese and nine 
kinds of sausages on the table, besides smoked reindeer 
tongue, sardines, smoked salmon, and flat-bread. 
In addition to all this, beef is brought in. It has 
been finely chopped and mixed with suet, eggs, milk, 
cracker-crumbs and spice, and fried in balls. For 
dessert we have a dish altogether new to us. It is 
thick sour milk mixed with sweetened bread-crumbs 
and fruit syrup, and served with sweet cream. 

Our breakfast is equally hearty. It consists of 
boiled and fried salmon, hacked steak, omelet, four 
kinds of cheese, flat-bread, pickled herring and coffee. 
Luncheon brings hot and cold fish, chopped meat 
rolled into balls with rich gravy, white and brown 


74 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


bread, red cheese in large balls, and our choice of 
tea or coffee. 

The shops of Bergen are among the finest in Nor- 
way; that is, they contain just the things tourists 
wish to buy as souvenirs. The shopkeepers, too, 
are very polite and honest. Indeed, so honest are 
the Norwegian people that one noted traveler, who 
could not speak the language, used to hold out a 
handful of money in payment for lodging or souvenirs 
and let the people take their own pay. He felt sure 
he would never be cheated. 

Let us enter this shop. If our purses were only 
twice as full, we might perhaps go away satisfied. 
The most prominent articles of sale in this, as in 
all Bergen shops, are umbrellas and rain-coats, for 
nothing is so popular as these, not only for birthday 
gifts, but also for confirmation presents. But as 
we are well supplied, we turn from them to what in¬ 
terests us more. 

Here are quaint old tankards, beautiful enamel 
silver brooches, filigree chains and bracelets, and 
costly eiderdown cloaks, rugs, and quilts. We see 
a great deal of the colored embroidery used on girdles 
and bodices, and curious knives carved from wood 
or made of steel; many of these latter are etched with 
Norwegian flags. This tra}^ is full of beautiful carved 
ivories, while over in the corner are dolls in native 
costume. “Almost as many different costumes as 
there are in the Black Forest/' we cry, and imme¬ 
diately decide that dolls must be among the souvenirs 
we buy. 

Bergen is a gay as well as a busy town. It is the 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


75 


starting point for tourists to Hardanger and Sogne; 
so through all the tourist season its streets are gay 
with the costumes of people from other countries. 
The band plays on Sunday afternoons after church, 
and then all the best people promenade. There is 
much merry chatting and happy laughter, but never 
any disorder. 

Although Bergen is much visited by people from 
other countries, yet here are still found many quaint 
and ancient customs. One of them is Flytledager, or 
Change-day. Change-day is the time servants change 
their places, and comes the middle of April and the 
middle of October, since servants here are hired for 
six months. 

On these days servants leave their old places at 
two in the afternoon and go to the new at nine in the 
evening. The few hours between are made use of, 
you may be sure. The maids all put on their best 
clothes and spend the afternoon and early evening 
promenading the streets, where they are joined by 
their friends. At no other season are Bergen streets 
gayer than on Change-day. 

Norway has had many illustrious men, but none 
has given to the world more joy than Bergen’s 
famous son, Ole Bull, the great violinist. Let us 
visit the cemetery where he lies. A bronze urn five 
feet high marks the spot where he rests. On it are 
these words: 

ALL HAIL, THOU BLESSEDEST BARD OF SONG 
DIVINE THY BOW 

His grave looks out over the beautiful Bergen Bay 
he loved so well. 



OLE HULL, THE FAMOUS VIOLINIST 




A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


77 


A visit must be paid to his island home, which is 
still owned by his family. It is not far from the 
city, and is called Lysoe, or “Isle of Light.” The 
old monks gave it this name seven hundred years 
ago. Lichen-covered boulders and low hills cov¬ 
ered with birch, spruce and pine make up the six 
hundred acres which constitute this beautiful home. 

The house consists of a hall and two or three ser¬ 
vants* cottages. The hall itself is yellow with a 
tower at one corner and a portico in front. Winding 
stairs lead to the music-room on the second floor. 
Here the great musician lived on the happiest terms 
with his peasants and poorer neighbors. Every year 
he gave them a feast and dance. One of the dainties 
of the feast was always smorbrod. The guests always 
brought their own fiddler. Ole Bull dearly loved 
to make these people happy. 

We make a special trip to the old church of Bor- 
gund, which, although a good distance away, well 
repays us. 

It is a wooden building, black with age and also 
from the coats of tar which have been put upon it 
to preserve it. In shape it is a little like a Chinese 
pagoda, its six tiers of roofs being very sloping and 
its gables tipped with crosses or with the beaks of 
ancient Viking ships. 

The church was built eight hundred years ago, 
and is the oldest complete building in Norway. Its 
width is only twenty feet, while its length is forty 
feet. The roofs and sides are covered with long 
shingles having rounded lower edges. Inside, it is 
open to the roof. The only light which enters is 


78 


A LITTLE JOUIINEY TO NORWAY 


through a kind of cloister around its base. There is 
no longer any service held in this quaint old 
building. 

AN ENGINEERING FEAT 

And now let us see what railroad engineering in 
Norway is like. Nowhere else can we understand 
this better than on the road from Bergen to Vos- 
sevangen, a distance of sixty-seven miles. We learn 

that the trip will 
take four hours. 
It seems as 
though we have 
only nicely start¬ 
ed when suddenly 
we find ourselves 
in one of the 
tunnels for which 
this road is fa¬ 
mous. Another 
and another— 
and still another! 
In such quick suc¬ 
cession do they 
come that we 
have to give all our time to counting them. We fear no 
one will believe us when we say that in the sixty- 
seven miles we have counted fifty-five tunnels; yet 
this is actually true! Two trains each way a day 
are run between these two places. 

The hotel of Vossevangen is rather a pretentious 
three-storv building of modern style with many 



CARRYING BERRIES TO MARKET 





A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


79 


gables, and a piazza overlooking a pretty lake. To 
the back rises the wooded slope of a hill. 

Vossevangen is a prosperous place, for it is the 
market-garden of Bergen. Most of the fruits and 
vegetables in the Bergen markets came from this 
little town. As we walk up and down the streets, 
waiting for the train to Bergen, we see load after load 
of potatoes, peas, beans, and strawberries and other 
fruits on their way to the station to be shipped to 
the Rainy City. 

A regiment of soldiers, too, is being sent through 
Vossevangen. The men wear helmets, and silver- 
colored ornaments on their gray uniforms, while the 
officers are dressed in blue and gold. A very jolly 
company they are, as, like ourselves, they walk up 
and down the streets. 

The Norwegian army is small, but able to do much 
brave fighting because of its careful training. There 
has, however, been no opportunity to try its real 
strength for many years, for Norway has long en¬ 
joyed peace. Norwegian boys receive military drill 
in many of the schools. Later, the life of a soldier 
is followed as earnestly as a Norwegian youth fol¬ 
lows any calling he chooses. The king is the com¬ 
mander-in-chief of the army. 

There is in the Norwegian army a corps of skaters, 
or skiers. They are armed with repeating rifles. 
It is said they can move as rapidly as the best trained 
cavalry, and have astonished the officers of other 
nations in their practice contests. They can travel 
on the ice a distance of eighty miles a day, carrying 
all their equipments. 


so 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


Every able-bodied young man when he reaches 
the age fixed by law must serve in the army. The 
only exception made is in the case of the men of 
Finnmark, the northernmost province of Norway. 
The Government considers that the Finnmarkers 
have enough to do to wrest their living from the 
frozen soil of that Arctic land,- so they are exempted 
from the long service required of others. 

HARDANGER 

One day's journey from Bergen brings us to the 
last fjord we shall visit—beautiful Hardanger, ihe 
fjord most visited by tourists. The captain of our 
steamer tells us it is 68 miles long, but with all its 
arms it measures 140 miles. 

From an island outside the fjord a little boat brings 
our Norwegian pilot, who climbs the rope ladder 
like a cat. Steering a vessel between these many 
islands is a difficult task, but he takes the helm as 
though it were the simplest thing in the world. 

And now it is lunch time; but in order that we may 
not miss too much of the beautiful scenery, the steamer 
slows up until we are on deck again. Partly by 
islands and partly by points of land locked together, 
Hardanger is divided into a number of sections which 
seem much like lakes. 

“How different from Sogne!” all exclaim, as the 
beautiful view opens out before us. The scenery 
of Hardanger is famed not only for its grandeur, 
but for its beauty and variety as well. Countless 
little islands of green like the one we have passed 
fill the entrance, while upon Hardanger's highest 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


81 


mountain-top is the snow-mantle of the Folgefond. 
From this snow-mass descend several glaciers which 
terminate in leaping, sparkling waterfalls. Lower 
on the mountainside grow grass and firs, alders and 
birches, making this fjord much less drear than Sogne. 
Hardanger has 
many farms and 
red-tiled peas¬ 
ant cottages 
upon its lower 
slopes. Fields of 
golden grain 
wave in the sun¬ 
light. The water 
is a beautiful 
azure, and the 
sky is bright. 

Even the faces 
of the Hardan¬ 
ger people are 
in marked con¬ 
trast to those 
of the people of Sogne. Here the peasants seem con- 
tented and happy, while there they were haggard 
and worn. 

The Hardanger costume is the gayest and most 
picturesque of all Norway. The women wear a 
dark but bright short skirt bordered with bright 
velvet and tinsel, over which is a long apron, often 
with gay stripes running crosswise or a border of 
the Hardanger embroidery now seen in the stores 
at home. The bright red bodice is cut low and 




82 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

heavily beaded in a design looking much like a breast¬ 
plate, with dangling disks and ornaments. Under¬ 
neath the bodice is a full-sleeved white waist. 

Married women wear a peculiar winged head-dress 
of white, with crimped cambric fastened close around 
the face and rolled over a wooden frame. It flares 
very broadly at the sides, and hangs far down the 
back. The women often have fancy pockets hang¬ 
ing at the side from which they take their knitting 
as they walk along. The hair of the Hardanger 
girls is braided with ribbons, and sometimes a little 
beaded cap is worn. The men of Hardanger wear 
very wide trousers of coarse homespun, and slouch 
hats. Their jackets have many silver buttons. The 
quaint silver jewelry worn by the peasants of this 
region has many pendent disks and crosses. 

As our steamer glides up this long arm of Har¬ 
danger, the shores press close together. Steep moun¬ 
tains rise on either side. At the head of the fjord 
nestles the little village of Odde, well-known to 
tourists. 

In the distance are a number of glaciers, which 
end in waterfalls, for this valley is an outlet of the 
Folgefonden glacier, an immense perpetual snow- 
mass measuring 108 square miles. One of its streams 
is called the Buarbrae. It flows through a valley so 
narrow that the glacier fills it completely and stands 
a wall of ice four or five hundred feet high. At the 
foot of the glacier are a number of grottoes, out of 
which the melted glacier flows as a sparkling, dash¬ 
ing, foaming waterfall. Over this stream is a wicker 
bridge which looks too frail to be trusted. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


83 


This is surely the region of waterfalls! Besides 
the Buarbrae stream there is the Laatefos, one of 
the grandest falls in Norway, while within sight of 
Odde is also the Espelandsfos, almost as beautiful 
as Laatefos. Besides these, only a good day’s journey 
away, we are told, is what some judges hold to be 
the finest fall in all the country, the Skaeggedalfos. 
Then, for one who is not afraid of hard climbing, 
there is the Round Valley Fall to be visited. From 
the foot of the Cataract one can look up and see the 
water leap over the ledge, over eight hundred feet 
above, in one great mass, and then dash to spray 
below. The noise is deafening. The black and frown¬ 
ing cliff hangs over one. 

On account of the beautiful scenery surrounding 
it, the little town of Odde has become famous. It 
is famous, also, for its violins, the finest being the 
“Hardanger.” These have six under strings and four 
upper, the upper tuned either in unison or harmony. 

One would think that so near the great snow-cap 
of the Folgefond strawberries would never grow, 
yet grow they do in surprising quantities. We meet 
children on the road selling them in green leaf-baskets. 

THE NORWEGIAN PEOPLE 

The men of Norway are rather thickly and strongly 
built, though not very tall. Both men and women 
have fair complexions, light, silky hair, and the very 
bluest of eyes. First cousins, indeed, they must be 
to the ancient Angles of whom St. Gregory said when 
he beheld them, “Not Angles but angels!” 

The Norwegians are absolutely honest. If any 


84 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 



article of our baggage is mislaid we need have no 
fear. It may be a little slow in being returned to 
us, but returned it will surely be, and in good condi¬ 
tion. Then, too, 
N orwegian shop¬ 
keepers do not 
try to take ad¬ 
vantage of tour¬ 
ist-customers, 
either in prices 
or in making 
change. 

These people 
are courteous, 
kind - hearted, 
and hospitable. 
All questions 
concerning 
routes, historical 
places, beautiful 
scenery, or Nor¬ 
wegian life are 
answered po- 
norwegian woman litely, and a real 

interest is taken 

in those who come from other lands. Often the 
Norwegians put themselves out a great deal to serve 
travelers. They always set before their guests the 
best fare at their disposal, though it ma}^ be plain. 
The cordial custom of shaking hands with strangers 
is followed here in so hearty a way as to make one 
from another land feel quite at home. 





A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


85 


These descendants of the Vikings show as much 
perseverance and bravery in battling with their 
poor soil and frost-locked lands as did the old sea 
kings in battling with the waves. Norway stands 
abreast of the leading countries of the world in cul¬ 
ture, education and general advancement, if not in 
material wealth. No other nation, however, keeps 
its position with so terrible an effort as Norway, so 
we should honor and admire the Norwegians for 
what they have accomplished. 

Although the Norwegian people come much in 
contact with other nations, they cling to their sim¬ 
ple ways, quaint dress, and interesting customs. 
Even their names are distinctive. If the father’s 
name is Ole Johnson, his oldest son’s name will be 
Ole Oleson, and all the rest of his sons will have Oleson 
for their surname, and the daughters will bear the 
name of Olesdatter (Ole’s daughter). The first grand¬ 
son, however, will be named after his grandfather. 

It is not surprising that Norway has produced a 
long list of noted men, for the disadvantages of soil 
and climate in this Northland have served to make 
the people not only brave and hardy, but perserver- 
ing and thoughtful. These qualities, added to the 
excellent schools of Norway, give the Norwegians as 
a nation a very high degree of intelligence. 

NORWEGIAN SCHOOLS 

The schools, although far apart in the thinly settled 
regions, are excellent. Every child is compelled 
to attend school, and there are few Norwegians who 
cannot read and write. German and English are 


86 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


spoken by many of the people. These languages 
are taught in a number of the schools. There is 
throughout the land a great respect for education. 
The handsomest building in a town or village is usually 
the schoolhouse, and teachers, governesses, and tutors 
are looked up to with the utmost respect and esteem. 

In the common schools reading, writing, arithmetic, 
geography, history, Bible history and the catechism 
are taught. In many schools the boys have gym¬ 
nastics and military drill. Once a year all the boys 
of the public schools unite for a military parade. 
This is made a gala-day. Some of the schools have 
bands, which furnish the music, and after the parade 
the boys are given a grand feast. 

Another great day, though a trying one, in the 
life of a Norwegian boy or girl is that of the public 
examination before the parish pastor and the other 
members of the school committee. Every child over 
nine must take this examination. In Norway the 
Church and the schools are very closely connected. 
Not only the Church but the law forbids any boy or 
girl being confirmed who has not been sent to school 
to receive religious teaching, and who cannot read 
the Bible. 

In many of the wild and remote parts of the coun¬ 
try the people are too scattered to maintain a school. 
In such regions teachers are sent from farm to farm, 
living with each family for a time in order to teach 
the children. These home schools are called “Am¬ 
bulatory Schools.” 

In a number of towns industrial schools similar 
to that of Bergen have been started. Here boys 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


87 


learn the different trades and girls the household 
arts. Besides these there are agricultural schools, 
schools of forestry, a military and naval school, an 
art school, six schools of navigation, and at the head 
of all the famous University of Norway at Christiania, 
which has drawn 
its pupils from 
nearly all the 
countries of 
Europe as well as 
from the home 
land. 

Indeed, Norway 
may justly be 
proud of her 
school system, 
and it is largely 
to the opportu¬ 
nities afforded 
them for learn¬ 
ing that the Nor¬ 
wegians owe the self-respect and self-reliance for 
which they are noted the world over. 

The little folks of Norway are very carefully reared. 
They are taught to revere the aged, and to look upon 
the grandfather’s blessing as something very serious 
and important. The}^ respect highly their pastor 
and teacher, and show them great deference. 

Norwegian babies are rolled up in bandages much 
like German babies. A Norwegian mother often 
ties her little one up in a shawl and carries it on her 
back to the hayfield, but once there the baby is 





88 A LITTLE JOUJtNEY TO NORWAY 

hung to the limb of a birch or spruce for the wind to 
rock to sleep. At home its cradle is often only a 
box hung from the ceiling by stout cords fastened 
to the corners. 

As soon as a Norwegian child is old enough to use 
his little hands at all he is taught to do some useful 
work. The girls learn to knit, spin and weave upon 
the large hand-looms still found in many homes. 
While still very young they learn the simpler pat¬ 
terns of the home-made embroidery, lace and bead¬ 
ing. They are also taught to make butter and cheese, 
to cook, and care for the household clothing and pro¬ 
visions. Norwegian boys early begin their lessons 
in gardening, tool-making, and wood-carving. 

The girls dress much like their mothers, with the 
exception of the head-dress, which is lacking in the 
girls’ costume. The boys’ costume closely resembles 
that of their fathers. Even the very poorest chil¬ 
dren have neat clothes to wear to school, for in this 
the parents take much pride. 

SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS 

It would almost seem that the Norwegians, with 
the hard work they are obliged to do, and the dreari¬ 
ness of the country, especially in winter, would have 
few amusements, but such is not the case. These 
people seem to get much enjoyment out of simple 
pastimes. The long dark winter is the principal 
season for pleasure, though the summer has its share. 

The summer season is longer than one would sup¬ 
pose. When winter does break up, it vanishes 
as though by magic, and summer comes with a bound. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


89 


By May city people move to their summer homes and 
a round of pleasure begins. Picnics, fishing, boating, 
and all kinds of outdoor games make the fjords at 
this season almost as gay as in the winter. Bathing 
is always a popular sport, though somewhat dangerous 
for any but good swimmers. The fjords are very 
deep and the shores very steep. Sometimes, too, 
there are jelly-fish about with a poison which stings 
the skin of the bather. Many of the villas have bath¬ 
houses wittucages to keep the jelly-fish out. 

In winter and spring the men go in small parties 
up the steep, snow-covered mountainsides to hunt 
bears in the dense forests. In the north and west 
wild reindeer and the giant elk also are tracked over 
the snow. Sometimes a Norway elk stands 6^ feet 
high and weighs 1,500 pounds. In Norway the elk 
are more numerous during severe winters than at 
any other time. It is said they are driven to seek 
shelter from Russian wolves. The wolf is afraid to 
cross the metal rails of the Trondhjem-Christiania 
railway, and the elk is not, so it seeks safety by cross¬ 
ing the line. The elk is hunted with dogs trained for 
the purpose. 

The fjords, lakes and rivers are very gay in win¬ 
ter. Then men, women, ajid children go out on the 
ice to skate. They practive fancy figures and high 
speed skating and often hold contests for prizes. 
A very pretty sight it must be to see hundreds of 
people on the ice at night, each carrying his torch. 

One would think that everyone is out for a good 
time; yet the fishermen come to ply their trade in 
sober earnest. They appear, however, to have as 





NORWEGIAN PEASANTS IN WINTER DRESS 





















A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


91 


much fun as anyone. They may be seen pigging 
almost any day in winter. Pigging is sitting on a 
sled and pushing it along with two spiked sticks. 
Over rough ice these fishermen can go faster on a 
sled than on skates, and can also carry their fishing 
tackle more easily. They cut holes in the ice through 
which to fish. This makes skating exceedingly dan¬ 
gerous, but danger seems only to make the sport more 
attractive. 

Sleighing is another favorite pastime in Norway. 
At Christmas sleighing parties are often formed to 
ride even the long distance from Christiania to one 
of the western fjords. Such a ride takes four or five 
days. Women as well as men enjoy these long sleigh 
rides in midwinter. 

Great interest is taken in racing, and there are 
trotting clubs all over the country. Instead of the 
races being held in mild weather on a ground track, 
they take place in the winter, on ice. The races 
usually meet during the second week of February. 
Then not only do all the villagers go down to the 
lake to witness the gay scene, but people from all 
parts come, by rail, by post-road, on foot, and on 
skis. Norwegian races are as gay as the Derby in 
England. The quaint, bright dress of both men and 
women make the scene a festive one, for here are 
usually to be seen the picturesque peasant costumes 
from many sections. 

Coasting is another Norwegian amusement. The 
sled may be long enough only, for one, or it may seat 
eight. Usually it holds only two. The steering is 
done with a pole fifteen or twenty feet long, held at 


92 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


one end in the hand and gripped between the arm 
and the side. The other end of the pole trails off 

behind over the 
snow and serves 
the same purpose 
as the rudder of 
a boat. 

The national 
sport, however, is 
not skating or 
racing or coast¬ 
ing, but skiing. 
Skis are long, 
narrow skates 
turned up at the 
front end like a 
toboggan and 
fastened to the 
feet by straps. Think of wearing skates ten feet 
long! It requires infinite skill, too, to use them. 
They must be kept exactly parallel, or the ends are 
sure to hit together and trip one up. 

Skis were first used, and are still used, as a means 
of travel in districts where there are no highways or 
where the roads are buried under deep snow. On 
skis one can travel where it would be impossible for 
a horse or man to walk. Few sports give such op¬ 
portunity of showing presence of mind and courage 
as this. 

A great skiing contest is held near Christiania 
about the middle of February. There are really 
two contests—a time-race thirteen miles across coun- 







A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


93 


try, and a leaping race on the slope of a hill, with a 
lake at its foot. 

Early in the morning of the day on which the leap¬ 
ing race occurs, the roads are thronged with people 
come to witness the leap, or hoprend, as they call it. 
The slope is 190 yards in length, and the starting- 
point is 160 feet above the lake, while the terrace from 
which the leap is made is two-thirds of the way down. 
The whole descent takes only from seven to nine 
seconds. The leap here is 90 feet, but 100 in some 
places is not uncommon, and even 120 was once made. 

Dancing is popular in Norway, and in some parts 
forms almost the only entertainment at the long 
winter evening parties, at fairs, and at weddings. 
There are few Norwegians who cannot dance, and 
many are very pretty dancers, though the Norwegian 
dances are very unlike ours. 

HOLIDAYS 

Norway seems to have its share of holidays. Na¬ 
tional Independence Day, the day corresponding to 
our Fourth of July, comes on May 17th. It celebrates 
the freeing of Norway from Danish rule, and is ob¬ 
served much as is our Fourth, with cannons, fire¬ 
works, and big parades, but without the fire-crackers. 

Everywhere on Independence Day flags are seen, 
as in fact they are on nearly all fete-days and even 
on birthdays. The Norwegians make more of their 
flag than even we make of our Stars and Stripes. 
They seem to think that people of other lands must 
love it, too, for everywhere it is displayed in the shops, 
among souvenirs for foreigners. 

In this interesting- country there arc two Christ- 


94 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


mases—one on the 25th of December, as with us, 
and another on the 21st of June—only neither is 
called Christmas. The winter holiday is Jule, or 

Yule, and the 
summer, St. 
Han’s or St. 
John’s Day. St. 
John’s marks the 
longest day in the 
year. Balefires 
are lighted to 
celebrate the 
triumph of light 
over darkness, 
the victory of the 
summer sun over 
the long winter 
night. In some 
localities every 
family lights its fire and some people set their boats 
ablaze, letting them drift out upon the waters of 
the fjord as a funeral-rite for the death of darkness 
at the hand of the summer sun. 

On St. John’s Day everything is decked in green, 
but the greens are not the same as those of Yule- 
tide. On this midsummer holiday principally beech 
and birch are used for decorations. Carts, wagons, 
carriages and even railway locomotives are trimmed, 
and nearly every window of every house has a branch 
of green sticking out of it. City people go into the 
country, and country people go into the city. All 
feast and have a jolly time. 






A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


95 


The Norwegians have one pretty custom both on St. 
Han’s Day and at Yule-tide. They put out sheaves 
of rye or barley on a pole as. a feast for the birds. 
This is so regular a practice that many people keep 
their pole alwa}^s standing near the house or fastened 
to the roof of the barn. 

Of all the holidays in this Northland Christmas is 
the most joyous. The Scandinavians used to believe 
that Jule was the giant of darkness and that Baldur 
(or some say Thor), was the god of light. These two 
had a battle twice a year. In December the sun-god 
got the worst of it, but at midsummer he conquered 
Jule. A Jule, or Yule log was burned in December 
as a prophecy that in the next battle the god of light 
would again win. 

The Yule decorations are of pine, spruce, and fir. 
Everything is trimmed as on St. John’s Day. The 
good housewife goes to the storehouse and takes down 
a part of the flat-bread from where the big round cakes 
are hanging by a string passed through a hole in their 
center. This is to be given to the poor to make their 
Christmas happier. 

The Yule-tide celebration, however, really begins 
two weeks before. The house is carefully swept, 
the tables are scrubbed, and the greens are gathered. 
These are not merely hung on the wall, as with us, but 
are also sprinkled over the floor. The women bake 
sweet-cakes and a fresh supply of flat-bread, while the 
men hunt the deer or fish. A sheep is killed and 
made into sausage, which takes the place of our Christ¬ 
mas turkey. The tree is brought into the hall and 
hung with candles. The greens are placed on wall 


96 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


and floor, and all the fine dishes and old tankards are 
brought out. 

When all is ready the family hold prayers, and then 
the children light candles and hang them around 
the room; after this is finished all look with happy 
eyes toward the beautiful tree. 

The Christmas dinner-table is long and narrow. 
In the middle is a big pile of flat-bread, while around 
it are dishes of cheese, a large roll of butter, 

often weighing 
twenty or thirty 
pounds, and 
brown bread of 
rye or barley, 
with prunes, cara¬ 
way’, and spice 
in it. When this 
course is finished, 
the family sings 
songs. Then 
come fish and 
sausage, potatoes 
and onions, and 
lastly the cakes 
are brought on. 
When the meal is ended all say, “Thank you,” to 
the mother and lead her into the next room while 
they sing carols. 

Yule lasts till January 6th. After the first day, 
which is generally spent at home or with relatives, 
there is much visiting among neighboring families, and 
at these gatherings dancing is the usual entertainment. 





A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


97 


Of holiday sports the children have their full share. 
At Yule-tide they are given many pleasures. They 
are allowed to wear their prettiest clothes-, which 
for the girls are dresses of gay homespun, and for 
the boys garments of bright colors, especially red 
and blue. On Chrstimas Eve it is the children who 
light the candles on the tree as well as those which 
are placed around the room. 

Later, on the same evening, each child takes a 
lighted torch to guide him on his way to church. It 
is really beautiful to see all these lights moving tow¬ 
ard the same place. The children carry with them 
gifts for the poor, for they are taught while young 
to sympathize with those in need. After the ser¬ 
vice the pastor stands at the front of the church 
with his back to them, to receive their gifts. And 
then what a race there is for home! for the one who 
gets there first is supposed to be the happiest child 
for the whole year to come. 

The children are sure to be up bright and early on 
Christmas morning, for this is the time they are al¬ 
lowed to play their little pranks. Sometimes the 
boys tie their sister in bed, or steal her shoes, or lock 
her into her room. But these jokes are all taken 
good-naturedly. 

Often it is the children who gather the grain in 
the autumn for the birds’ Christmas dinner, or save 
their pennies to buy it with. On Chirstmas, too, the 
dog has his chain taken off and the cows are fed twice 
as much as usual. In all this the children delight 
to take part. 

On Christmas night there is a sudden rap at the 


98 • A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

door and in rush a number of maskers, who make 
jokes and sing songs until the ale is passed, when 
they disappear as suddenly as they came. Finally 
the time comes for the children to form a procession 
and march around the tree, singing carols as they 
march. Before the presents are distributed, however, 
they sit down, each child being allowed to go to the 
tree for his gift when his name is called. 

Norway has a kind of Santa Claus—though not 
one like ours—who gives presents. Nys is his name, 
and he is a sort of brownie, though he is often rep¬ 
resented as having a long white beard and white 
hair, a jolly face and dress of fur. Nys is a cheery 
old fellow, if only he can have his own way, but one 
must be careful not to cross him. Christmas Eve 
is his very own, so special pains are taken to please 
him by setting his favorite dishes outside the door 
for him. These are pudding and Yule cakes. Of 
course he can pass through a door though it be barred, 
but he wishes to find his food waiting for him out¬ 
side. If it is not there, woe be to that household! 
The farm animals, perhaps, will all be tired the next 
•day because Nys has been playing tricks upon them 
and keeping them awake; or perhaps everything 
around the barn will be in confusion. 

If, however, Nys finds his Yule dish outside, often 
the chores are all done when the father goes to the 
barn in the morning. The horses have been curried 
the wood split, and the cows milked, having given 
two or three times the usual amount of milk. One 
must never speak of Nys above a whisper, as that is 
particularly displeasing to him. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


99 


A NORWEGIAN WEDDING 

And now most happily for us we have been invited 
to a Hardanger wedding, for at a Hardanger wedding 
we shall see the gayest of all Norwegian bridal cos¬ 
tumes. Our good landlady knows how interested we 
are, and has asked the privilege of taking us with her 
to see a young friend of hers married. 

We set out early for the fjord, for the wedding party 
are to come by boat, and we are anxious that no 
part of this interesting ceremony escape us. Soon 
the}^ come around a turn in the fjord. The boat 
ahead contains the bride and groom, and is tiimmed 
with flags and garlands of bright flowers, and gay 
streamers at the mast-head. It is a twenty-oared 
boat and holds nearly all the party, though three or 
four small boats follow^ at a little distance. 

The bride and groom sit on a raised seat in the 
stern, and look very happy and gay in their bridal 
costumes. The bride wears a white waist, with full 
sleeves gathered into a band at the wrist and over 
this a bright red gold-embroidered bodice with straps 
over the shoulder and trimming of gold lace. It is 
something the shape of the bib of a kitchen apron. 
The girdle is embroidered to match the bodice. Three 
stripes of embroidery down the front trim the white 
apron, which is worn over a full dark-green skirt. 

The bride also wears the quaint old silver brooches, 
rings, and pendants, and the rich silver crown that 
have all been in her family for generations, perhaps 
for centuries. The crown is of filigree with little 
bars topped with silver balls standing high and flar- 

lofc. 


100 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 

ing at the top. From these hang little chains with 
scalloped ornaments at the ends, which dangle back 
and forth with very move of the head. 

A short round jacket fastened with one button 
below the neck, but having rows of silver buttons at 
the side, is a part of the bridegroom’s costume. His 
waistcoat has the same kind of buttons, only smaller, 
while etiquette seems to prescribe trousers of home- 
spun ending at the knee, and shoes with buckles. 
A tall felt hat completes his costume. 

The church floor is strewn with juniper twigs. A 
long black gown and big white ruff is the costume 
worn by the minister. His sober dress sets off well 
the gay costume of the bride and groom. Although 
we do not understand all the ceremony, it seems very 
solemn and impressive. 

The bridal party go home as they came, in their 
boats, the rowers singing native songs as they row. 

When they return to the bride’s home there* will be 
great doings, with a big feast, firing of guns, and danc¬ 
ing. Besides flat-bread, many kinds of meat, fish, 
and cheese, salads, and desserts, one of the great 
dainties will be smorbrod. This is above all a wedding 
dish. In olden times the wedding festival used to 
last a whole week. 

It is the custom here in Norway for the groom 
to carve the beautiful family treasure chest, and also 
to cut mottoes over the doors and on the bed-posts. 
These carvings are long treasured in the family, like 
the silver crowns and brooches. Over a doorway is 
sometimes carved this motto: “God save this house; 
bless also all who go in and all who go out here.” 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


101 


NORSE VIKINGS 

The ancient Vikings furnish the most interesting 
chapter in all Norwegian history. Every one has 
heard or read of them. Some of us, indeed, saw the 
Viking ship which Norway sent to the Columbian 
Exposition. In the museum of the University of 
Christiania is the vessel—more than a thousand 
years old—after which the Columbian ship was 
modeled. 

The Vikings, as we know, lived long ago. They 
were bold Scandinavian seamen who sailed in their 
quaint boats to the shores of other countries, first 
to plunder, and finally to settle. The word vik in 
Old Norse meant creek, so the Vikings were lords 
of the creeks and the fjords. 

The old Viking ships were long and narrow, with 
a high prow and stern terminating in a carved figure, 
usually a dragon’s head. These figure-heads were 
nearly always painted in bright colors, as were, also, 
the great round wooden shields along the side of 
the ship. Red, white and black were favorite shield- 
colors. These old vessels were often large enough 
to carry a hundred or more men. 

At the end of the eighth century the Norsemen 
learned the use of sails from the Romans, and very 
picturesque their ships then looked. Sometimes the 
sails were white, but usually they were of bright colors, 
and often gayly striped. A preparation of oil and 
tar was smeared over them, as the sails of fishing 
boats to-day . are sometimes treated, to prevent mil¬ 
dew. 

With the Norsemen’s adoption of sails began the 


102 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


great Viking Age. The men of the north ventured 
across the sea and ravaged the coast of England, 
Scotland, Ireland, France, and even the Mediter¬ 
ranean countries. For a thousand years one of the 
titles of the Norwegian ruler has been “King of the 
Goths, ” and King Oscar includes it in his title to-day. 

The ancient Viking boat was not only the bold 
Norseman’s home on the ocean wave, but his sepulcher 
as well. When a Viking died, he was laid in his 
ship (which had been drawn up on shore), his war- 
gear and drinking horn beside him, while near him 
were placed his faithful dog and war-steed. The 
vessel was headed toward the sea, so that when called * 
once more into life by Odin, the chieftain might be 
ready to start upon another voyage over the waves 
he loved. The boat was covered with birch-bark, 
then with blue-clay and buried deep, with a mound 
of earth and stones to mark the spot. 

In earlier times a Viking’s burial was still more 
imposing. His beloved ship was anchored upon the 
shore and his body laid within. Not only were his 
jewels and weapons, and favorite steed placed beside 
him, but even his servants and members of his family 
took their stand upon the ship to meet death by the 
hero’s side, for this was his funeral pyre. The vessel 
was set on fire and the anchor loosed. Then the 
ship, all aflame, drifted out into the sunset. 

Not only did these bold Vikings plunder and sub¬ 
due countries of Europe, but they even crossed the 
Atlantic in their high-prowed ships to Iceland, Green¬ 
land, and the mainland of America. To-day their 
descendants are coming by the thousands to America 


A LITTLE JOURNEY TO NORWAY 


103 


and finding homes, chiefly in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, 
Minnesota and Dakota. 

Not only have the Norsemen made their own coun¬ 
try great, but they have added much to our land. 
The home farms are so small and scanty, fishing so 
dangerous, and other occupations so crowded that 
many of the younger people have been forced to seek 
in America the opportunities they long for. Spring 
is the favorite season for emigration. Then the 
wharves of Norwegian ports are lined with those 
who are going to try their fortunes in other lands. 
Good Friday is the favorite sailing day, since these 
pious people believe that this holy day signifies the 
burial of all their past troubles and that the future 
will be like a glad Easter morning, when new life 
shall come to them. 

But how can we leave this wonderful land—this 
land of mountains and ice-fields, of waterfalls and 
fjords, this land of the midnight sun—which has re¬ 
paid us so many times over, for what seemed perhaps 
at times difficult traveling? Yet other lands await 
us and we must say farewell. 


NATIONAL HYMN OF NORWAY. 

“JA VI ELSKER DETTE LANDET 
Tempo di Marcia, f R. Nordraak. 




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m m m ~0 -F-^F- 1 -1-- 




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Love we well our storm-beaten land, Looking forth with vision clear; 
Ja vi el-sker det - te Lan - det, Som det sti-ger frem, 

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Yes, we.love our 
Fu - ret veir -bidt 


na - tive 
o - ver 


land And 
Van - det , 


thou- sand homes so dear. 
Med de tu-sind Hjem; 





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Cher-ish we the home of par-ents; Land of Norse-men bold, With the 
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Sa - ga - nat , som saen - kcr, saen-ker Prom -me paa vor jord. 


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A LITTLE JOURNEY 


THROUGH SWEDEN 


INTRODUCTION 

Our visit to Norway has made us wish to visit her 
twin sister, Sweden, in her northern Scandinavian 
home. The two countries together make one think of 
some long-necked animal, opening its mouth to swallow 
little Denmark. Still, appearances do not always 
count. A country may look veiy small upon the map, 
and yet be quite powerful. 

Little Denmark ruled Norway for four hundred years, 
and then handed her over to Sweden without so much 
as asking Norway if she liked it or not. It happened 
that the Norsemen did not like it, and rebelled. But 
Sweden conquered them and a union was arranged, 
with one king to rule over both countries. It seems as 
if these two sister countries might have lived together 
i:i peace and harmony, and so they did for many, many 
years, but disagreements arose during the year 1905 
and for a time it seemed as if there might be war 
again. 

King Oscar II. did not like to lose one-half of his 
people and one-third of his land at once, but he is an 
old man now and did not wish to war with part of his 
children. Then, too, the Scandinavians have grown 

3 




OSCAR II, KING OF SWEDEN 

more sensible than their warlike Viking ancestors. 
They have seen the evil results of strife, and a separa¬ 
tion was arranged, without the shedding of blood. 

Swedish people speak of Sweden as “Mother Svea” 
(Sva), and more loyal children or a more devoted 
mother it would be hard to find. Her homestead is 

4 






INTRODUCTION 


5 


not on the world's great highway of the ocean, but 
situated where it looks out on the quiet Baltic sea. 

She has taught her children to depend not upon out¬ 
siders, but upon their own industry and ingenuity. 
She tells them that since she has less to sell than many 
of her neighbors, they must get along without buying, 
if what they can raise at home will in any way answer 
their purpose. 

“Since we have no coal," she says, “you must set 
your brains to work to contrive a stove which will give 
the most heat possible from the wood of our forests, 
and invent the best wood furnace for smelting and 
manufacturing our iron ore into the finest steel the 
world has ever known. Never mind if we cannot raise 
much wheat; look well to our rye and barley fields, for 
after all, black bread makes us much stronger and 
healthier than white bread, and we can raise plenty of 
potatoes to help out. And as to the thin cotton our 
Southern neighbors wear, why, we do not need it. We 
are much more comfortable in the clothing our good 
sheep provide. Weave all the cotton the neighbors 
send us, to sell abroad, but keep for your own clothes 
the flax and wool that we raise at home." 

So Mother Svea is content to live on in the same 
quiet, dignified, happy way, as in old times, looking 
well to the ways of her household, and ready to wel¬ 
come with a most cordial greeting any guest who 
knocks at her doors. 

What parts of Svea's homestead shall we find most 
interesting, and when shall we visit her, and what shall 
we take with us? Of one thing we may be sure: She 
will be especially glad to see us between the first of 


6 


INTRODUCTION 


June and the last of August. These are her “at home” 
months for receiving her guests, and at this season we 
shall find her at her best. 

Although Sweden resembles Norway in many re¬ 
spects, in others it is quite different. Norway is for 
the most part a great plateau, while Sweden is largely 
a plain, with much marsh-land and hundreds of lakes. 

Instead of the crags and peaks and wild grandeur of 
Norway, we shall, except in the far north, find upland 
and meadow, forest and cultivated valley, with towns 
and villages and many a comfortable red farmhouse. 

Agriculture is the leading industry of Sweden, 
though nearly one-half of the country is covered with 
forests, and lumber is its greatest article of export. 

Sweden comprises the eastern and southern parts of 
the Scandinavian Peninsula. Its greatest length from 
north to south is 986 miles, and its greatest width 286 
miles, while its area, to be exact, is 170,713 square 
miles. This means it is as large as the nine kingdoms 
of Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Bavaria, 
Wurtemburg, Saxony, Greece, and Servia, all put to¬ 
gether. It is divided into three parts: the southern is 
called Gottland, the central Svealand, or Sweden proper, 
while the northern is called Norrland, though its 
northern and northwestern portions are known as 
Lapland. 

The two principal cities are on the coast, Stockholm, 
the capital, and Goeteborg (got'en-borg) or Gothen¬ 
burg, the chief center for exports. 


GOTTLAND 


GOETEBORG 

After the ocean voyage to Liverpool, a trip by rail 
across England, and two days on the North Sea, we 
enter the Goeta (ge'-ta)^ the watery avenue which 
bears us to Goeteborg, our chosen entrance-gate to 
Sweden. 

One of the first sights we have of Goeteborg as we 
steam up the river is a rocky height crowned by an old 
gray stone castle. This is “The Crown.” The city 
itself lies low along its rivers and canals, the harbor is 
full of vessels from foreign lands, for Goeteborg carries 
on trade with nearly every part of the world and owns 
a large merchant fleet of her own. Though the coun¬ 
try lies so far north, the harbor, we are told, is rarely 
frozen over. 

Here are vessels loaded with timber from northern 
and central Sweden, some to be used as lumber, some 
as masts for sailing vessels, and some to be ground 
into paper pulp. Just leaving its dock is a steamer 
loaded with tools and machinery made of Sweden's 
famous steel in Sweden's shops, and quantities of even 
finer steel to be made into cutlery and watch-springs, 
articles which require the very finest product of the 
steel-workers' skill. That large vessel just entering 
the harbor has coal for some of the many Swedish 
foundries and machine shops, for Sweden has almost 
no coal of her own. Over yonder is a freight steamer 




8 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

with a variety of goods to be distributed among various 
Swedish towns; chief among its cargo are raw cotton, 
wheat, flour and other food-stuffs that Sweden cannot 
herself produce. At the wharves are two vessels load- 


GOETEBORG HARBOR 

ing with nothing but fish. One is to carry Norwegian 
cod and Swedish ling to foreign ports, and the other has 
salmon from Svea’s crystal streams arid trout from her 
clear lakes, herring from the western coast and strom- 
ming from the Baltic. 

These wharves we have been watching are only for 
the large sea-going steamers. The steamers plying on 




A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


9 


Goeta Canal all land at wharves of their own farther 
up the river, while the fishing boats lie in a canal near 
the southern end of the wharves. 

Along the shore of the harbor hang long lines of fish 
nets to dry, while a little farther back are sheds for 
curing fish, and also many fish hung on open frames to 
dry. 

This city of Goeteborg, or “Fortress of the Goeta,” 
is five miles from the sea. It is Sweden’s second city 
in size, and in it dwell one hundred thousand of her 
sons and daughters. In commerce it ranks first among 
her cities, and for this reason she calls it her Liverpool. 

Goeteborg is a quaint old town, built with canals for 
streets, after the manner of Dutch cities. Much of the 
city resembles Rotterdam, though a number of the 
buildings are after the French fashion; the houses are 
generally three stories high and mainly of brick, for 
Goeteborg, like other Swedish cities, takes great pre¬ 
cautions against fire. 

This old city is laid out like so many cities in Ger¬ 
many, the older part in the center being surrounded by 
a beautiful Ring Strasse, and the newer part built out¬ 
side this. The center of old Goeteborg is the Gustavus 
Adolphus Market, named for a favorite king of by-gone 
days. Here stands a statue of the hero, clad in mili¬ 
tary cloak, high boots, and plumed hat, with finger 
pointing toward a distant part of the city. 

How fortunate that we have come on Wednesday, 
for Wednesdays and Saturdays are the great market 
days, and from the great number of wares displayed, 
the city must do a thriving business. Here are piles 
of cheap furniture and piles upon piles of fire-wood 


10 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROT7GH SWEDEN 

neatly corded up in great cages or racks in order to 
measure it. Over on the other side sit rows of old 
women behind great masses of flowers and vegetables, 
or baskets of plums, apples, and cherries. The women 

wear soft padded 
clothing, with one 
shawl .pinned 
around the should¬ 
ers and another 
over the head. 
Men at little 
booths are selling 
sausages, hams, 
smoked salmon, 
and even Ameri¬ 
can pork, but the 
chief article of 
food in their stock seems to be dried and salted fish. 

On one side of the Market is the Exchange, on an¬ 
other the Town Hall, built about two hundred and fifty 
years ago by the great architect Tessin, of whom 
Sweden is so proud. On a third side is the Museum, 
in the old building of the once famous Dutch East India 
Company. Besides its collection of fine paintings, the 
Museum has many natural history specimens, and 
historical relics of the Stone Age in Sweden; also a 
very complete display of Sloyd work, in which Sweden 
leads the world. 

Turning to the east, we pass the old moat, which 
once surrounded the town, and come to the beautiful 
Gardens of the Garden Society of Goeteborg. One 
might spend a whole day here, strolling under the 



MARKET WOMEN—GOETEBORG 







A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


11 


grand old trees, lingering in the hothouses to admire 
the rare plants brought with so much care from distant 
lands, or simply enjoying the landscape of the Gardens. 
In the evening, as long as the season lasts, there is music. 



GOETEBORG, KUNGSPORTS AVENUE 


We enjoy a row on the old moat, which we passed 
on the way to the Gardens. This moat is now used 
for pleasure and not protection. Dozens of gaily- 
painted little pleasure boats are skimming over its 
waters, and we join the procession, in order to get a 
view of the city. 

Some of the streets we pass by in the newer part of 
the city seem to have as fine residences as New York 
or Paris. In front of the New Theatre we notice the 






12 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

celebrated statue known as the “Belt Duelists/' or 
Wrestlers, representing a mode of wrestling common 
among the lower classes in Sweden until the last cen¬ 
tury. 

Now we leave our boats and cross to the Ring Strasse 
of Goeteborg. It is called the New Allee (al-la'), and 
sweeps for a mile around the old town just outside the 
moat. This Allee is the pride of Goeteborg, with its 
double row of fine elms on each side and its handsome 
residences. We are just in time to see the daily prom¬ 
enade of the city's fashionable people, which lasts from 
two to three in the afternoon. No good Goeteborger 
thinks his day complete without a ride or drive up and 
down the Allee. 

A visit to Slottskog’s Park, quite outside the city, 
is worth the journey. It is very beautiful, with its 
cliffs, oak groves, ponds, fountains, and curving drives, 
reminding us of our own Central Park in New Tork. 

Look at this group of Swedish maids, with their flax- 
colored hair and rosy cheeks. The black silk hand¬ 
kerchiefs tied round their heads and under their chins 
make their pink and white faces seem even more fair 
than those of their mistresses. How well and strong 
every one looks! 

The nurse maids are giving their little charges an 
airing, and other children are playing about while their 
mothers enjoy a chat. That man in the gray-blue 
uniform with black leather trimming and spurs and 
sabre, is an artillery man taking his exercise. The 
Swedes, like the Germans, spend much time in the 
open air. 

We return by way of the cathedral, whose high 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


13 


tower can be seen from distant parts of the city. It 
was built diagonally across the square, so that its 
choir might face due east. 

Of all the cities of Sweden Goeteborg, from its posi¬ 
tion, is best adapted to ship-building and fitting out 
naval expeditions. In its great yards are built both 
steamers and sailing craft. Here is a big steamer 
being built to ply between England and Sweden. Its 
great framework, as it towers high above us, seems 
like the skeleton of some monster. Over yonder, 
masts are being fitted to a schooner, while farther on 
the finishing touches are being given to one of the long 
low fishing boats, with prow and stern rising high in 
the form of a dragon’s head. 

We visit the shops for souvenirs to take home, and 
this is what we find: a beautiful hand-carved wooden 
pin-tray that resembles the very boat we saw a little 
while ago in the yards. Its two handles rise high in 
dragon form, and its low sides have disks resembling 
the row of round shields that were always hung on the 
side of the ancient Viking ships; a quaint wooden 
candle-stick; a pretty wooden work-box, its cover pro¬ 
jecting over the box itself in four long points at the 
corners and held down by wooden wedges, both box 
and cover are gaily painted in red, blue, and yellow. 
These boxes are made in all sizes, from the tiny one in 
which a Swedish belle carries her bit of embroidery to 
one the size of a trunk, which peasant families keep in 
their guest room, or storehouse, for family treasures. 
Every Swedish peasant girl owns one of larger size, in 
which to store the homespun linen and woolen she has 
made with her own busy fingers and is laying away 


14 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

till she shall have a home of her own. A bit of the 
beautiful drawn work Swedish women do so well, and 
a brooch of filigree silver with dangling pendants such 
as only a Norwegian or a Swede knows how to fashion, 
and our purchases are made. We stop here not be- 



VIEW IN SLOTTSSKOG PARK 


cause there are no more beautiful things to tempt us, 
but only because our purses will permit us to go no 
further. 

A SWEDISH DINNER 

A Swedish friend has sent us an invitation to dine 
with her and her parents to-morrow evening. To be 
a guest in a Swedish home of the upper class is a 
privilege, so we plan to cut the day’s sight-seeing short 



A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


15 


to be ready for the three-o’clock dinner, for this is the 
fashionable dinner-hour in Sweden. Our hostess and 
her mother receive us, and after a few minutes’ pleasant 
talk all pass to the dining-room. At one side of the 
room is a small table, set with all manner of tidbits, 
according to the Swedish taste. Here are thin slices 
of smoked reindeer, fresh raw sliced salmon, hard- 
boiled eggs, smoked goose breast, cucumbers, old 
cheese flavored with caraway, rye bread seasoned also 
with caraway, anchovies, sill-sallat, or herring salad, 
made of pickled herring cut into bits (the fatter it is, 
the greater delicacy it is considered) and mixed with 
tiny pieces of boiled meat, potatoes, boiled eggs, raw 
beets and onions, to which pepper, vinegar and oil are 
added. All these dainties are spread on a snowy 
cloth, with piles of plates, knives, and forks at one 
side. 

The hostess leads us forward to the table. As 
guests we are expected to help ourselves first. There 
are no chairs, for this is only the introduction to the 
dinner proper, and is eaten standing. Each one takes 
a slice of bread, spreads it, and with fork daintily picks 
here a bit of cheese, there a slice of reindeer or a mor¬ 
sel of the salad, and is then at liberty to go where he 
chooses to eat it. In this great variety of dishes the 
salmon, smoked goose-breast, and herring salad are the 
particular dainties. 

When all are served, a pleasant social time follows. 
We walk about the room, and while enjoying the new 
custom and new dishes, enjoy also the chat with our 
host and hostesses. 

We next pass to the dinner table and the real dinner 


16 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


begins. The different courses are much the same as at 
home. 

At the close of the meal we return to the drawing¬ 
room, where Swedish etiquette expects us to shake 
hands with the hostesses and say “Thanks for the 
food;” with a warm hand-shake they graciously reply, 
“We hope it has done our kind guests good.” This 
ceremony is repeated with the host. A Swedish 
guest would be considered very rude who did not 
thank his entertainers for the pleasure they had 
given him, for no one can receive guests more gra¬ 
ciously than a Swedish hostess. She always says, 
in welcoming guests who have been in her home 
before, “Thanks for the last time,” which is only a 
polite way of saying that their former visit gave her 
pleasure. 

After a cup of coffee served in the drawing-room and 
a few minutes of pleasant conversation, we take our 
leave of these kind friends, who give us a very cordial 
invitation to visit them again, and also a letter of 
introduction to a friend of theirs in Stockholm. 

THE WESTERN SKARGARD 

We have rented one of the many pretty little boats 
lying at the wharves and engaged its owner as our 
skipper, and now this beautiful morning start on our 
cruise in and out among the network of islands lying 
off the western coast to the north of Goeteborg. This 
fringe of islands is part of the great Island Belt, or 
Skargard, which extends along the greater part of the 
Swedish coast and is the pride of this northern king¬ 
dom. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


17 


Along the Skargard and on the coast of Bohus 
(boo'-hous) opposite we shall find many picturesque and 
beautiful summer resorts and quaint fishing villages. 
To the resorts come the wealth and fashion of Goete- 



MILK WOMAN 

borg, Stockholm, and other Swedish cities, while in the 
fishing hamlets life is very simple. 

Not far out from Goeteborg is Marstrand, the most 
celebrated of all Sweden’s summer resorts, where 
dwellers in the city throng ^from early in the season 
till late for a refreshing breath from its wind-swept 
cliffs. It lies on a projecting elbow of one of the 
beautiful islands of the Skargard, several miles from 
the mainland. Its rocky cliffs are heated by the sun 
through the long summer day, and in turn give out 



18 


A LITTLE .TOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


their heat through the short night, so that while the 
air is refreshing it is always mild. 

Marstrand has a grim old fortress dating from days 
of long aga; from its ramparts one gets a fine view of 
the neighboring rocky islands strewn helter-skelter 
along the coast. The fortress of Carlesten has its 
walls in some places blasted out of the solid rock and 
in others built of granite. It is no ruin, but a well- 
kept fort of a bygone age, with its cannon in place 
ready for action. 

Four miles away lie the dreaded Pater Noster ledges, 
where so many good ships have been sunk. On the 
largest of these foaming rocks rises now a lofty iron 
tower, with its beacon light to warn seamen of the dan¬ 
gers below. At the foot of the light is the keeper’s low 
house. A pilot boat with a broad red stripe down the 
middle of its sail is bringing barrels and barrels of oil 
to feed the great light through the long winter nights. 
Now, however, the signal is not much needed, for the 
summer nights, even this far south, are short and never 
very dark. 

We return just in time for Marstrand’s fashionable 
evening promenade. At this time, as well as at noon, 
all Marstrand goes strolling. The brass band is “blow¬ 
ing,” as the Swedes always say, and everyone has 
locked his door and hung the key up in plain sight 
outside, “just to show he is not at home.” 

Early in the morning we are on our way again. 
This seems to be the Skargard wash-day, which comes 
usually but twice a year. Clap! Clap! Clap! go the 
wooden clubs of these peasant wash-maids, as they 
beat the last drops of water out of the clothes they 



A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 19 

have just rinsed in the waters of the fjord. When this 
is done they spread the wash on the sloping banks of 
the cliff to dry. But not everywhere on the cliff-side 
is a suitable drying-place to be found. It must be 
either bare rock or clothed in green grass, for the yellow 


moss which grows on so many rocks leaves a stain on 
the clothes. 

Soon the village of Gullholmen comes into view. It 
is hard to see how its barren soil could attract settlers, 
for to this day there is not enough earth in all the ham¬ 
let in which to bury the -dead. The graves of these 
fisher-folk must be made on a neighboring island, to 
which theirs is joined by a bridge of poles. 

Gullholmen houses straggle in zig-zag fashion along 


MARKET PEASANTS, KARLSKRONE 





20 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

mere paths up steep rocks, in some places so steep that 
wire cables have been stretched to hold on to as one 
goes up hill. 

These people have an old and beautiful custom. The 
fishermen of Gullholmen go to the Great Banks of the 
North Sea to fish. When one of their boat's crew dies, 
they ever after carry a line of hooks, called a backa, on 
their cruises, and all the fish caught on it they keep 
apart for their dead comrade's widow. 

Most of these islands off the Bohus coast are naked 
and barren, as well as steep. “Once," the Bohus 
fishermen say, “they were covered with beautiful 
groves, like the Stockholm Skargard, but three hun¬ 
dred years ago or more the Danes burned them off, 
and after that the soil dried up and was blown away." 

Here is Karingoe, or “Old Woman's Isle," with its 
little village where every morsel of soil has been 
brought from elsewhere. Willows were the only trees 
that would live upon its rocky surface, but after they 
had grown large enough to afford protection,- fruit 
trees have with the greatest care been made to grow 
in their shelter, soil being brought to nourish them. 
The soil is still so poor that the whole island can 
barely feed eight cows, even though sea-weed and 
other food is brought from more favored regions. The 
island's best harvest is gathered from the sea. Here, 
hung up to dry on rails, are thousands of ling, split 
open and stretched out on splints. The long lines of 
ling and cod fringe the rocky hills above the little red 
houses, line all the wharves, and even cover the oppo¬ 
site shores of the sound. Fine large fish they are, too, 
many being longer than a man is tall, while some even 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


21 



measure between seven and eight feet in length. 
Almost every man on Karingoe is a fisherman. During 
the fishing season it is no uncommon thing for the 
island to have but one or two able-bodied men left at 
home. It is from 
Karingoe and 
neighboring vil¬ 
lages of Bohus 
and the Skargard 
that most of the 
boats start for 
the northern fish¬ 
ing banks. 

More than a 
hundred Swedish 
fishing boats from 
this region go 
each year to the 
North Sea Banks. 

They are called 
bank-boats, and 
the largest will 
carry a cargo of 
fifty or sixty 
tons. They all 
have a spar run¬ 
ning straight out behind the stern, on which a small 
sail is set while the fishing is going on, to keep the boat's 
head to the wind. They have high, broad prows, 
that they may ride the dangerous billows on the 
shoals. 

There is an ancient custom still followed of paying 


SUNDAY COSTUMES 
Island, Southern Coast of Sweden 





22 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


tithes to the church in fish. Besides all the fish caught 
on the priest’s string, which every boat, carries, each 
fisherman must give the priest the two biggest ling and 
the two biggest cod he catches in the year. They are 
called priest-ling, and are valued far and wide, always 
bringing the very highest prices. Priest-ling are dried 
but never salted, for they are prepared for lut-fisk for 
Yule-tide; in this form they are one of the choicest of 
Swedish dainties. 

A stop is made at Orust (o'roost) Island, third in 
size of the Swedish islands. Orust, unlike Karingoe, is 
quite a rich agricultural region. Meadows and small 
cultivated fields are scattered here and there, but the 
islanders are also fishermen. 

LYSEKIL 

Sailing on, we next touch at Lysekil, which after 
Marstrand is the most popular watering-place of 
Sweden. As Marstrand is the favorite resort with the 
people of Goeteborg, so Lysekil is most frequented by 
Stockholmers. This makes the two places rivals. 
But Lysekil has won renown in another line, and has 
become famous for its delicate anchovies. 

The chief pastime here is yachting. It is an inter¬ 
esting sight to go down to the wharf and see the thirty 
or forty sailboats drawn up at the piers. One of the 
finest things about it all is that one could rent the best 
among them for a dollar and a quarter a day, with a 
skipper and boy thrown in. 

Although a resort of fashion Lysekil still follows 
some of the customs of long ago. On Mid-summer’s 
Eve bonfires still blaze from the rocky headlands as 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


23 


they have done on this night for nearly a thousand 
years, in honor of Baldur, the god of the Summer 
Sun. 

NAAS 

Returning to Goeteborg, we cannot think of passing 
on without a visit to Naas, whose school has led the 
world in the teaching of Sloyd. The Swedish people 
were the first to put into practice the idea of manual 
training in the common schools, and Naas was one of 
the first schools to teach this branch. 

Sloyd had for ages been practiced in Swedish homes. 
Notwithstanding its poor soil and long, hard winters, 
farming is and has been the chief occupation in Sweden. 
But during much of the year farmers cannot work out- 
of-doors. In olden times, when each peasant family 
had to make the family clothing as well as all the farm 
tools and house¬ 
hold utensils, not 
a leisure moment 
was to be found. 

So the work of 
this kind, that had 
been crowded out 
for want of time 
in the short sum¬ 
mer when logging 
and fishing and 
field work de¬ 
manded every 
minute, was done during the long winter evenings. 
Gathered around the cheerful fire of blazing logs, 
listening, perhaps, to an ancient ballad or legend of 





24 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


some brave Viking, each one busied his fingers with 
some useful occupation. 

The men made rake-pegs, ax-helves, spoons, ladles, 
benches, chests, cradles, tables, and all other articles 
used about the farm or house; not content with making 
them merely useful, to some they added simple designs 
in carving to make them beautiful. The women 
tended the spinning-wheel and loom, and sewed the 
family garments, while the daughters knit the house¬ 
hold stockings and mittens or embroidered the bright 
bodices which gave their dress its beauty. This work 
of the hands the Swedes called Sloejd (sloyd), and from 
them we get the idea and name of our modern sloyd. 
In later years, when factories were started and rail¬ 
ways and canals built, so that the country people 
could buy the needed things more easily and cheaply, 
sloyd in the home began to die out. The time thus 
saved was not always wisely spent, and so some good, 
earnest people set to work to revive it, and out of this 
effort sprang the Naas school. 

Naas is an estate about twenty miles from Goeteborg. 
There are three thousand acres in the estate, part for¬ 
est, part cultivated land. The main building, called 
the Castle, is .a long two-storied building, surrounded 
by fine trees and vases of beautiful flowers. 

The state rooms are used for occasional meetings 
and social gatherings, while the sleeping-rooms are kept 
for distinguished guests—and long indeed is the list of 
those who have been entertained at the Castle. Occu¬ 
pying the whole width of the second story is the 
great salon where take place the solemn closing exer¬ 
cises of each term. Besides many other interesting 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


25 


things, the Castle has a large park and a winter 
garden. 

Eight or ten buildings furnish the lecture and class 
rooms, work-shops and dormitories of the school, 
among them being a gymnasium and a new building 
for games in rainy 
weather. 

Naas was 
founded as a 
boys’ manual 
training school, 
but soon included 
girls also. When 
it was found that 
sloyd was a valu¬ 
able part of the 
regular school 
course, Naas be¬ 
came a sort of 
Normal School for sloyd, where teachers might be fit¬ 
ted to teach this branch in the Swedish schools. So 
' great has been its success that teachers even from the 
distant countries of Greece, Egypt, Orange Free States, 
Argentine, and Chile have come to learn its methods. 

The work is limited to wood-sloyd, together with 
gardening, and the household arts of needlework, 
cooking, and preserving, but drawing, gymnasium 
work, and the study of out-door games also find a 
prominent place. 

The workshops, with their cases of models and their 
busy workers, are a pleasant sight. Here youths and 
middle-aged men work side by side; some wear the 



SLOYDLARAISENIRNARUM, (Sloyd Gymnasium) 
NAAS, SWEDEN 





26 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

quaint peasant dress, some the dress of the city, but 
all are busy and interested in their planing,hammer¬ 
ing, sawing, and cutting. 

The school garden always attracts visitors. Here 
are the gayest and most picturesque costumes, for the 
instruction in the proper laying out and care of a gar¬ 
den is for the especial benefit of those in the country 
district, and from these districts come the gayest 
dresses. To-day the lesson is in raking, and the rain¬ 
bow skirts of the girls added to the blue of the boys’ 
suits, or the yellow of their long aprons, reaching from 
armpit to ankle, make a pleasant picture, as they 
stand in a long line and wield their rakes. 

One of the prettiest sights at Naas, however, is the 
lesson in out-door games. Here are taught running 
games, ball games, and all sorts of games, to the 
accompaniment of song. And one may learn not only 
how to play the games, but also how to make the 
simpler things required for them. 

Open-air lectures are given, also, on the history of 
games, so, without doubt, if we were to become pupils 
here we might, in this delightful way, learn all about 
the old Greek Olympian Games, the grand Tourna¬ 
ments of the Middle Ages, or the simple but beautiful 
peasant games of Sweden itself. 

It certainly seems that the knowledge which the 
five thousand student teachers have acquired who 
have gone out from Naas to schools of their own, must 
help greatly in making Swedish boys and girls indus¬ 
trious and skillful as well as clever. 

And now begins our railway journey to Malmoe 
(mal'-mo), not, however, by the most direct road, 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 27 

skirting the western coast, but rather the route past 
the southern shore of Lake Vettern, enabling us to see 
something of the central part of Southern Sweden. 

After leaving Goeteborg the scenery is for a distance 
much like parts of New England, having, like that 



CHAPEL AND FARM SCENE 


region, many barren and rocky places. The farms are 
fenced with stone walls or the old-fashioned rail fence. 
Soon patches of fir, pine, or birch appear, and farther 
south become almost forests in some places. 

In some respects the road is better than many of 
our own at home. Here in Sweden there is greater 
precaution against accidents. Mother Svea owns most 
of the roads herself, and looks well to the safety of her 
children. At intervals of three miles all along the way 
are little red houses for watchmen, whose duty it is to 
walk half the way to the next house on each side to 
inspect the road; at every cross-road, too, there is a 
watchman. Though plain and bare in themselves, the 




28 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

stations are made attractive with flower beds and win¬ 
dow boxes. Then, too, the uniforms of the train 
officers add a bit of color, and their polite manner 
shows a real interest in the passengers they serve. 

Now a chance is given to see what a Swedish 
railway eating-house is like. In the center of ‘the 
main room stands a big table spread with a clean white 
cloth, on which are set large dishes of chicken, lamb, 
roast beef, soup, potatoes, vegetables, bread and but¬ 
ter, a dozen varieties, more or less, of cheese, pudding, 
milk and buttermilk. 

We sit down at one of the little side tables and watch 
for a waiter to take our order, but none comes, and 
soon we find that each one is expected to help himself 
from the various dishes on the big table to whatever he 
wishes, and if he wishes a second helping he serves 
himself to that also. No one takes any account of 
how many dishes he helps himself to nor how much of 
any dish. We find by watching others that when the 
meal is finished we are expected to go to the desk and 
pay for our dinner, simply stating what we have eaten, 
and our word is taken for it. And a very small price, 
too, it is we have to pay. 

More forest and cultivated fields and red farm¬ 
houses, and we finally reach Falkoeping, where we 
leave the Goeteborg-Stockholm Railroad and take a 
train for the South. 

In a few hours we reach the southern shore of Lake 
Yettern. Just where the road winds away from the 
lake is situated Joenkoeping, a city of twenty thous¬ 
and inhabitants. It is the seat of the court for South¬ 
ern Sweden, and a busy city, with many factories and 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


29 


shops. It is famous abroad for its wood-pulp and 
paper, and as for its matches, they are sent clear to 
China, even if shrewd Chinese dealers do put their 
own stamp upon them and sell them for a home product. 

These great industries grew up out of a small begin- 



MEASURING TIMBER 

ning. The province of Smaland (sma'-land) has poor 
land, for the most part moor and forest, but its people 
are sturdy and frugal. There is a Swedish proverb 
which says, “put a Smalander on a barren rock in the 
sea and he will manage to make his living,” and 
another which runs, “at the Smaland stations one 
dines sumptuously if he has a good knapsack with 
him.” 

Smalanders are quick to make the best use of all 
their resources, and a number of years ago conceived 
the idea of turning the wood of their forests to account 







30 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

by making it up into matches. This not only utilizes 
the chief product of the province, but gives employ¬ 
ment to thousands, for Smaland now boasts a score of 
match factories, whose products each year are worth 
between one and two million dollars. 

So successful did the match industry prove that 
Smaland branched out into the wood-pulp and paper 
business as a new feature of her wood industry, and 
now has many mills for the manufacture of these pro¬ 
ducts. One factory here in Joenkoeping makes im¬ 
mense quantities of paper and roofing pasteboard for 
the South American market, while others turn out 
wallpapers, wrapping paper, and pasteboard boxes. 
There are factories of nearly every sort here—linen 
mills, machine shops, iron foundries, and chemical 
works. Thus the three wood industries have been the 
means of raising Joenkoeping from a struggling little 
town to one of the important cities of Sweden, with a 
fine breakwater and spacious harbor on Lake Vettern, 
which connects it with both the east and west coasts 
of Sweden, and a network of railroads leading to all the 
chief cities of the kingdom. 

Ten miles to the south of Joenkoeping is the Taberg, 
an iron mountain famous for its mines, which cover 
over sixty acres. At Taberg we get one of the finest 
views in this part of the country over the great stretch 
of Smaland forests, while to the west is the Nissa, most 
famed of all Swedish rivers for its salmon. Nissa sal¬ 
mon are smoked by a peculiar process which makes 
them considered one of the greatest of Swedish dainties. 

Nearly all central Smaland is a dreary country, with 
many marshes and swamp lands. The name Smaland 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 31 

means “small patches of arable land." These patches 
are set in the midst of swamps, forests, lakes, and 
rocks. 

Lovely Skane, lying in the extreme south, is the 
“ Paradise of Sweden." Here are to be found the 



COSTUMES 


mildest climate, the greatest variety of vegetation, the 
most fertile fields, and the richest peasantry. It 
boasts, too, many an old chateau, lying in the midst 
of vast estates, built when Skane was one of the most 
precious of Danish possessions. Though so ancient, 
these spacious homes are not dreary, for they are 
usually encircled by pear, apple, plum, mulberry, 
walnut, or chestnut groves. So pleasant are they, 
indeed, that their owners often remain all the year 
round, and feel no desire to spend the gay winter 
season in Stockholm or Malmoe. There are few large 
forests in Skane, and one can see, for miles across the 
country, Skane’s comfortable homes, with their pas¬ 
tures and fields of grain. 










32 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


A FARM HOUSE OF SKANE 

Through the kindness of a Swedish friend, we have a 
letter of introduction to an acquaintance of hers, the 
owner of a large farm; so let us stop at the little station, 
and make our way to this Swedish home, feeling sure 
we shall meet with a hearty welcome. 

As we follow the winding drive we catch frequent 
glimpses of the house through the groves of beach and 
oak. One thing seems strange; the house appears to 
be turning its back upon us, for there are no windows 
on the side toward the road—only a great entrance 
through which carriages drive. The house and other 
buildings form a square fully a hundred feet on a side. 
Timber in this part of Skane is scarce, so this heavily- 
timbered house is considered much finer than any of 
its neighbors, which are of brick plastered over. 

' Our host sees us and comes to the great door, or gate, 
to offer us, though strangers, a welcome, but when he 
learns through whom we come he insists that our 
horses be put into the stable and that we spend the 
rest of the day in his home. 

He ushers us into the living-room and introduces his 
wife, a young woman with the brightest of blue eyes, 
the lightest of silky hair, and the pinkest of com¬ 
plexions. She has been busy baking a three months’ 
batch of ring-bread. It is now hung above the fire¬ 
place, a pole passing through the hole in the middle of 
each of the big flat loaves, which are as big as a wheel¬ 
barrow wheel but almost as thin as a wafer, and are 
baked in front of the big fireplace. 

The furnishings of this big living-room are very 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


33 


plain. The principal thing in it besides a large table 
and benches is a great fireplace, occupying nearly one 
end of the room. The ceiling has heavy beams, and 
the oak floor is scrubbed white and strewn with birch 
twigs. Home life in Southern Sweden, even on a large 
farm, is very simple. Almost everything needed is 
either raised or made at home. This means that 
every one is busy, and the larger the estate the busier 
are the master and mistress. 

Adjoining the house on one side of the courtyard is 
the great "Economy House,” as it is called, where all 
the home industries are carried on. One side of the 
room has a work-bench, where shingles and smaller 
timbers for repairing the farm buildings are hewn and 
shaved, where tools are made and mended, and where 
brooms are fashioned by binding together limber 
young birch boughs around a larger branch for a 
handle. 

At one end of the room is the forge, with anvil and 
bellows, where wagon tires are heated for setting, and 
where tools and household utensils are wrought. Bars 
of iron and discarded parts of farming implements 
hang above the forge, waiting to be brought to some 
new use. 

Here, too, is a loom, on which is done the family 
weaving of linen and woolen for the house and for 
clothing. The hemp and wool and flax are all raised 
on the farm, and the work of retting the flax, washing 
and carding the wool, spinning, weaving, and cutting 
and making into garments is done in the home. 

The Economy House even boasts a brewery, where 
the family beer is made, for no five-o’clock meal is 


34 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


considered complete without this drink, and it is 
often served at other meals also. The brewery occu¬ 
pies a room by itself in the further end of the building. 
All the hops, as well as the grain for the beer, are 
raised on the farm. 

We must leave this interesting part of the house, for 
dinner is announced. Though Skane farmers are 
well-to-do, they live very plainly. Our dinner here is 
not begun with the smoergas, but we are seated at 
once at the table. A snowy cloth of homespun linen 
is spread, and all the dishes are placed directly upon 
the table. 

The dishes of a Skane dinner depend upon what day 
of the week it happens to be. On one day the chief 
dinner dish is salt pork; on another, fish, sausage, corned 
beef, or soup. To-day it is soup, which is served with 
the usual accompaniment of potatoes, milk, and vari¬ 
ous kinds of cheese, to which our hostess has added 
what to the Swedish taste is a very great dainty— 
Norwegian herring, salted, raw, and very fat, cut up 
into small pieces. The dessert is a large dish of thick 
sour milk sprinkled with ginger in fancy lines over the 
top and served with sugar and cream. This, too, is 
looked upon as a delicacy. 

Knowing we are interested in learning much of 
Swedish home life, our hostess tells us something of 
their customs and living. They have plenty of nour¬ 
ishing but plain food. In the busy season of harvest¬ 
ing it is soft, dark, sour bread and butter, with milk. 
This is the first breakfast on rising. The second 
breakfast, at six, is much the same, with coffee. At 
half-past ten another meal is served, and at noon 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


35 


comes dinner, with sour milk often as one of the 
dishes. A light meal of bread and butter, cheese, and 
beer is served at five, and supper at eight. The sup¬ 
per dish is always thin porridge, with either sweet or 
sour milk. Milk forms one of the principal articles of 
food the whole 
year round, for 
the cattle are kept 
on the farm in¬ 
stead of being 
sent away to pas¬ 
ture for the sea¬ 
son. 

After dinner 
comes a visit to 
the stables, at 
the opposite side 
of the courtyard. 

They afford room 
for a large herd of cows, a number of sheep, and two or 
three horses. Everything is a model of neatness, for 
the stables are carefully cleaned and the troughs 
scrubbed every morning. 

One of the principal occupations on this farm is the 
making of cheese and butter to sell. Every week the 
great cart is drawn out from the shed and filled with 
jars of butter, and cheeses of a dozen different hues 
and flavors, ready to carry its load to the nearest rail¬ 
way station, where it is shipped to Malmoe, the 
great trading-center of Skane, and the chief sea¬ 
port of Southern Sweden. From Malmoe these 
products may be sent to Copenhagen, London, or 



PRIMITIVE CART 
Used on the large estates in Sweden 




30 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

some of the great cities of Germany, or perhaps to 
Paris. 

Skane, like the other provinces of Southern Sweden, 
is famed for its butter and cheese, and does its full 
share toward bringing into Svea’s purse a good, round 
sum at the end of the year. Indeed, she will tell you 
that her dairies are almost as valuable as her furnaces 
and machine shops, and that her butter and cheese 
are as good as her steel, and every one knows how fine 
that is. Her fifty million pounds of butter and two 
hundred and fifty thousand pounds of cheese a year 
are indeed something to be proud of, and the fifteen 
million dollars they bring she can always find some 
good use for. 

We are much tempted to make a longer stay in this 
pleasant home, but we must hasten on. Here is a 
poorer farm, with buildings only on two sides of a 
square. It has also the thatched roof so common in 
this part of Skane but rare elsewhere in Sweden. 
The house in quite different from anything we have 
seen before, but is common in this region, we are told, 
on account of the scarcity of wood. It resembles 
somewhat our staff-work buildings. A frame was 
first set up, on which boards were nailed on the inside 
and outside to a height of three or four feet. Then a 
mixture of three parts clay to one of straw was crowded 
in tightly. The frame was then boarded up a little 
higher, and filled, and so on, until the walls were fin¬ 
ished; then the boards were taken off and the walls 
left to dry. Such a building is very durable, lasting 
often for two hundred years or more. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 37 

Continuing the journey, we pass through a number 
of small towns, and are soon in the famous and beauti¬ 
ful old city of Lund, which, as we have learned, means 
Pleasant Grove. It deserves its name, for it is in one 
of the richest parts of Sweden, in the midst of wheat- 
fields and dark beech groves, both rare in so many 
parts of the country. Around it are many fine estates 
and old chateaux. 

Lund has lived for centuries. Over a thousand 
years ago it was a rich and fortified city. There is 
an old Swedish saying about its ancient prosperity: 
“When Christ was born, Lund was already in har¬ 
vest.” In its greatest days it boasted two hundred 
thousand people; now, however, it has only about 
fifteen thousand. 

Bright and early this fine morning let us set out to 
make our acquaintance with the city. First comes a 
drive past the Observatory, surrounded by beautiful 
grounds, then out to the hospitals on the edge of town. 
These are for the whole province of Skane, and accom¬ 
modate many patients. From the hospitals to the 
Botanical Gardens on the east of the town leads one 
through a pleasant part of the city. 

In the Gardens are to be found rare plants from 
every part of the world and of every imaginable kind 
—rare vines, orchids, palms, and magnolias, as well 
as a very complete collection of native plants and 
flowers. The winding walks are shaded by beautiful 
old trees, while over to the northwest rises Saints’ 
Hill with its promenades. The Hill and the Gardens 
are the favorite resorts of the University students. 


38 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

They come under almost any pretext—for a stroll, to 
hear the band “blow,” or to study the rare plants as 
a part of their science work. 

Lund’s Cathedral, begun in 1048, ranks with that of 
Trondhjem or Upsala. Its two great towers are seen 
a long way off, and although the cathedral itself is 
only two hundred feet long, it seems of wonderful 
size, because of its fine proportions and its general 
style. 

The visit to the Cathedral has been planned for the 
morning, since this is the time it is open to visitors. 
Within, nine great pillars on each side separate the 
nave from the aisles. Its quaint old choir stalls and 
its frescoes on a ground of gold remind one of beautiful 
Cologne. 

This interesting old town, however, must be left 
behind, for Malmoe is waiting its turn. 

MALMOE (mal'mO) 

Leaving the train at the Malmoe station, we find 
ourselves close to the harbor, on the northern side of 
the city. The quay is lined with steamers, for this 
great seaport of Southern Sweden carries on a great 
trade. Here are anchored steamers from Stockholm 
and Goeteborg, from Lubec and Copenhagen, which 
lies only sixteen miles to the east across the Sound. 
Out yonder is a vessel bound for England with the 
South Swedish products of grain, liquor, beet-root 
sugar, and tobacco. Another is on its way to Ant¬ 
werp with some of Sweden’s far-famed steel, while still 
another is loading with paper-pulp and fish for Bor¬ 
deaux, France. Though Malmoe sends away great 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


39 



quantities of fish, her fishermen for the last four hun¬ 
dred years have had to go elsewhere to ply their trade. 
There was a time, however, when the great herring 
fisheries of Malmoe made her richer than Goeteborg or 
Copenhagen; then, it is said, the herring schools 


A COUNTRY ROAD 

were so thick that it was difficult to cast a line among 
them. 

Close to the wharves and depot is the custom-house, 
where officers are busy inspecting boxes, cases, crates, 
and trunks, for Malmoe is one of Sweden’s chief ports 
of entry. Many American tourists cross from Hull to 
Copenhagen, and from there to Malmoe. 

"What interesting things has Malmoe to offer?” we 




40 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

ask, as we set out upon our sight-seeing. Malmoe 
Hus, an ancient fortress a hundred years older than 
the discovery of America, is one of the famous places 
in this old town. It is now used as a prison and bar¬ 
racks. 

Lying close to Malmoe Hus is King Oscar’s Park, 
with pleasant promenades, stately trees, and gay- 
flowered plants. 

The old churches of Malmoe are worth a visit, and 
the great market also, although it much resembles 
that of Goeteborg. There are factories, too, well 
worth visiting. Among them are a glove factory and 
a cotton mill. 

What a tale the old Town Hall could tell of great 
gatherings and distinguished guests in its days of 
splendor. Its beautifully decorated Knuts-sal was 
once the council chamber of the ancient Guild of St. 
Canute, or Knut, one of the most powerful guilds of 
the Middle Ages. 

The journey from Malmoe is by rail to Ystad (us'tad), 
the southernmost city of Sweden. We have a chance 
along the way to see more of the beauties of Skane, 
for the road leads through beautiful beech groves and 
large cornfields, in sight of orchards and beet fields, 
past neat white churches and fine old chateaux and 
country seats. Everything wears a look of trimness 
and prosperity. 

In a field over yonder are women wearing the quaint 
native dress. The skirt is of woolen, in many colors, 
with a shorter white skirt over it. The light yellow 
leather trousers of the men are also picturesque. 
They are busily at work cultivating the long rows of 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 41 

beets, for the raising of beets and the manufacture of 
beet sugar has become of late years one of the chief 
industries of Skane. The beet raised here is the 
white variety found in so many sections of Germany. 

YSTAD 

After a journey of about three hours we reach 
Ystad, a manufacturing town of eight thousand peo¬ 
ple, and a busy seaport. Its harbor is large, and from 
it depart steamers to Stockholm, Malmoe, Copen¬ 
hagen, and Goeteborg, and less frequently, to Nor¬ 
wegian, German, and English ports, carrying great 
quantities of grain, especially to England. The view 
beyond the harbor shows us the white chalk-cliffs of 
Denmark, in the distance. About twenty miles to 
the east lies the dangerous Sandhammar Reef, so 
much dreaded by Baltic seamen. 

From Ysted to Karlskrona the journey is by post— 
a pleasant change, although so old-fashioned a way of 
traveling. The road passes through a flat, rich coun¬ 
try. Everywhere are fields and patches of tobacco, 
for the tobacco of this southern region is considered of 
the finest flavor by the Swedes. Its delicacy is ob¬ 
tained by the use of seaweed as a fertilizer. The 
raising and manufacturing of tobacco has risen in the 
last few years to be one of the great industries of 
Sweden. The yield some years reaches two million 
pounds, and besides this great quantity three or four 
times as much is imported, chiefly for making into 
cigars, of which something like a hundred and thirty 
million are made each year. It almost seems as 
though the smoke of Sweden’s tobacco must outrival 


42 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


in volume the smoke of her furnaces. There are nearly 
a hundred tobacco factories in the country, and the 
value of the goods they make up is nearly five million 
dollars a year. This region around Christianstad is 
the great center for the tobacco crop, which is marketed 
chiefly in Malmoe, though some is sent to other places. 

As we near Christianstad we see great piles of peat 
left to dry by the roadside and in the fields. Peat 
here is the chief fuel, since a plentiful supply is found 
in the low, marshy region. The wood of this section 
can be used only after drying for two or three years. 

The potato fields along the way seem to vie in num¬ 
ber with the beet fields. Most of the potatoes are 
distilled into a sort of brandy. Christianstad is a 
great center for breweries. 

CHRISTIANSTAD 

The old town of Christianstad is attractive as an 
example of an old fortified town, although it has no 
objects of great historical interest. Its old fortifica¬ 
tions have been partly torn down, but for defense a 
regiment of cavalry is stationed here. The town has 
been enlarged by the draining of Lake Helje, at its 
edge, to make fertile land for the support of its ten 
thousand people. The summer is a busy season, for 
then the beet and potato and tobacco fields must be 
planted and weeded, and later the crops must be 
gathered and taken to market. Then it is that 
Christianstad takes on an air of bustle and life out of 
all proportion to its quiet during the rest of the year. 
Its people keep many of their old ways and customs, 
and live in a comfortable, contented manner, without 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 43 

striving to imitate the fashionable life of the larger 
Swedish cities. 

At some distance from the town is one of the many 
old chateaux of Skane, which invites a visit. Think 
of forty thousand acres in one farm! That is the size 
of the Wachmeister estate. The old chateau, called 
Trolle Ljungby Castle, is of brick, and has its ancient 
moat and drawbridge still. Indeed, the moat is much 
older than the castle itself, for this is the fourth build¬ 
ing which has stood on the same foundation, the other 
three having been destroyed by fire. 

There are interesting legends connected with the 
place. Among the curios and art treasures which 
fill the rooms of Trolle Ljungby are an ancient drinking 
horn and whistle, which are guarded as most precious 
possessions, for the safety of the castle and tHe happi¬ 
ness of the family are supposed to depend upon their 
remaining here. 

KARLSKRONA 

Our ponies seem to know that this is the end of the 
post-journey, for they have brought us across the 
bridge and into town with a dash, and their stop is 
uncomfortably sudden as they draw up in front of our 
hotel. 

It is a surprise to learn that the town is so large. It . 
is a city of twenty thousand inhabitants; like Stock¬ 
holm, it is built partly upon islands, connected with 
each other and the mainland by bridges. Boats are 
at the quays, filled with vegetables and fruits, but the 
fish-boats, which come in the early morning, have 
returned. 


44 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

Karlskrona is the great naval station of Sweden. 
We visit the barracks where the Swedish seamen live, 
and inspect the massive fortifications of the harbor. 
The great number of cannons and the piles of huge 
cannon-balls testify that Karlskrona is indeed one of 



MARKET PLACE, KARLSKRONE 


Svea’s strong defenses; in the harbor are stationed 
Swedish men-of-war. 

The navy of Sweden, like her army, is recruited by 
enlistment, each province being required to furnish a 
certain number of men. When on duty Swedish sail¬ 
ors are under the strictest discipline, but when off duty 
they are allowed to cultivate their fields and carry on 
their farm work. One of the most important branches 




A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 45 

of the naval service is protecting the sixteen hundred 
miles of Swedish coast. 

From Karlskrona to Kalmar the most delightful 
route is by steamer through the Baltic Skargard. 
Here the islands are not so numerous as they are 
farther to the north. Some are mere rocks, large 
enough only to give shelter to hunters who come for 
eider-duck shooting. Others are large enough to be 
cultivated and to yield support to a little hamlet of 
fisher-folk. Here the fish called stroemming thrives 
in large schools. In size it is between the herring and 
sardine, and when freshly caught and fried is con¬ 
sidered quite a delicacy. Fastidious Swedes, when 
eating it, split the fish open and remove the backbone. 
The stern father of Gustavus Adolphus, however, 
made it a rule that nothing so effeminate should be 
allowed at the royal table. 

Now the picturesque Island of Oeland (e'land) 
appears, and soon we are sailing between it and the 
mainland into Kalmar Sound. 

KALMAR 

Quaint old Kalmar, a town of twelve thousand peo¬ 
ple, is built partly on the mainland and partly on two 
islands in the Sound, and is the most important port 
of Smaland. In heathen times it was a great market 
place, and people made a two or three days’ journey 
to attend its great year-markets. “The Key to the 
Kingdom,” it was called in those days of long ago. 
The ancient ramparts have been preserved and are the 
pride of the town. To-day they speak only of peace, 
for a park-like garden has been laid out on them, from 


46 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


which one has a fine view of the Sound and Oeland 
beyond, with its cliffs and long-armed windmills. 

On one of the islands of the city is the cathedral, 
built of stone from the quarries of Oeland, and on the 
other the castle of Kalmarnahus, the chief object of 
interest in Kalmar. It is a large, square building, 
with its ancient towers, ramparts, and moat still 
remaining, notwithstanding it has seen perilous times, 
for between 1300 and 1610 it resisted twenty-four 
sieges. 

One of the famous rooms of the castle, called “Old 
King’s Apartment,” is octagon in shape and has a 
massive timbered ceiling and inlaid panels fashioned 
by King Erik XIV, one of the early kings of Sweden. 
In another room is the bed in which the great Gustavus 
Adolphus once slept. The old castle has seen many 
changes; at one time it was used as a still for the 
making of liquor and at another for a granary. 

Kalmar is famous in history as the place where the 
great Kalmar Union was signed in 1397, uniting for a 
hundred and twenty-five years the three Scandinavian 
kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. 

The region around Kalmar is famed not only for its 
fine beeches but for its mushrooms, of which it is said 
there are two thousand species. Gathering them in 
the fall is a paying occupation. Some of Kalmar’s 
fine beeches are to be seen on the way to the two old 
churches of Hagby and Voxtorp, a little south of 
town. The central parts of these churches are circular 
towers, supposed to have been heathen temples, in the 
middle of which stood the priest with his hearers 
around him. The walls have loopholes, from which 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 47 

the worshipers might shoot arrows for defense. Sur¬ 
rounding the churches are circular churchyards, with 
headstones set in rings one within another. 

THE ISLAND OF OELAND 

From Kalmar it is a short passage across tne Sound 
to Oeland, and steamers make the trip every day. 
The Island of Oeland is about eighty miles long and 
from six to ten wide. A ridge with wooded slopes 
rises from the west shore. 

Oeland supports about forty thousand people, 
whose chief occupations are farming and cattle¬ 
raising. Once the island was famed for a breed of 
horses much smaller than the Shetland pony of to-day. 
Besides enough for home use, the Oelanders raise and 
send away each year hundreds of thousands of bushels 
of grain, chiefly wheat. From their quarries they also 
send away large quantities of lime, limestone, and 
slate. Fruits thrive in the balmy air and fertile soil 
of the island, and its orchards of apple and pear trees 
are among its greatest attractions. 

Borgholm, a town of nine hundred inhabitants, is 
the capital and port of the island. On account of its 
mild air, pleasant views, and romantic castle it has 
grown to be quite a watering-place. The foundation 
of the castle was built over six hundred years ago, but 
its roofless walls belong to a much later time. Here 
lived Duke Valdemar and his wife Ingeborg of Nor¬ 
way, a niece of the Scottish hero, Robert Bruce. 

Our geographies give us the impression that Stock¬ 
holm is directly on the Baltic coast, but not so. We 
thread a labyrinth of forty miles from the open Baltic 


48 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH RAVEDEN 


before we reach this “Venice of the North,” as it is 
sometimes called. This long arm of the sea forming 
the outlet of Lake Malar is called Salt Sea; it is filled 
with countless islands, while its rocky banks are fined 
with chateaux and pleasant villas, surrounded by 
grand old oaks, lindens, elms, and birches, as well as 
firs and pines. Each villa has its bath-house and 
boat-landing, for almost the only highway between 
them is the Salt Sea. Here are a Swedish lady and 
her maid just returning from market, one Avhole end of 
the boat being taken up with the huge basket of pro¬ 
visions they have bought in Stockholm. 

STOCKHOLM 

Just where the Malar pours down into the Salt Sea 
with a strong current is a group of islands which press 
the water into narrow channels between themselves 
and the mainland. On these and the mainland to the 
north and south of them the chief part of the city of 
Stockholm is situated. 

No one knows quite how or when the city came to be 
founded or how it received its name. Some say the 
first houses were built on piles, or stocks, and so the 
city was called Stockholm, for holm means island. 

The city was often a prey to its enemies, till shrewd 
old Birger Jarl, king in everything but name, saw how 
important a key this was to Sweden, for Lake Malar 
extends eighty miles inland, with long arms stretching 
far into the country to the north and south. Birger 
accordingly locked up the Malar from hostile fleets by 
building granite walls and towers around his town on 
Staden Island, and making it his capital. His son 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


49 


extended the fortifications to take in two smaller 
islands. Around these three the Malar and Salt Sea 
formed a moat bigger than man ever dug, and the two 
channels to the mainland were spanned by draw¬ 
bridges passing through strong towers. When the 



STOCKHOLM, FROM PALACE TERRACE 


Danes were finally conquered the city spread to the 
mainland. 

Today the shores and thousand islands of the 
Malar and Salt Sea are among the most thickly settled 
and prosperous parts of Sweden, and Stockholm has 
become a city of two hundred and fifty thousand 
people. 

Stockholm is beautifully situated and has a fine 







50 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


harbor, but the latter is blocked by ice four months ol 
the year. 

There are plenty of interesting sights in Stockholm, 
some that could not possibly be omitted. One would 
not be seeing Stockholm without visiting the National 



HARBOR AND SHIPPING, STOCKHOLM 


Museum, the Royal Palace, the Museum of Armor and 
Costumes, the Riddarholms Church, the Deer Park, or 
taking an excursion to Drottningholm or Gripsholm 
palace, or the fortifications of Waxholm. 

Near Blasieholm wharf is the National Museum, a 
three-story building of marble and granite, with an 
entrance of beautiful green marble. Over the portal 
are reliefs of famous Swedish scholars and artists. At 












A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


51 


one side of the Museum is a statue of “The Wrestlers’’ 
or Belt Duelists/’ the same subject we saw in Goete- 
borg. 

Inside the vestibule are fine statues of the old Scan¬ 
dinavian gods, Odin, Thor, and Baldur. On the 



STATUE OF LINNAEUS 


ground floor are the coins and Historical Museum. 
Here, from the tools and weapons of the Flint, Bronze, 
and Iron Ages we may learn how men in those primi¬ 
tive times fought, hunted wild beasts for food, or 
enticed the fish from their hiding-places with the 
rudest of hooks; we may understand how they tilled 
their fields or sailed tempestuous seas, and how they 





52 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

ornamented their person with homespun garments or 
quaint ornaments of gold and silver. This collection 
is one of the finest in existence. It includes flint 
arrow heads, stone axes, earthen vessels, amber beads, 
and countless other objects found in the ancient 
stone-heap and passage-graves, such as we found in 
Bohus. Belonging to a later time are bronze swords, 
shields, battle-axes, glass drinking-horns, gold and 
silver ornaments and furniture. 

The coin collection is one of the best in Europe, 
in some respects being even richer than that of the 
British Museum. Here is a Swedish coin of 1644 
which weighs forty-two pounds. A Swede's wealth 
in those days would be in little danger of taking 
wings. 

The next floor has cabinets of rare pottery from 
Italy, France, Holland, Germany, Russia, Denmark, 
and Sweden, besides rare Chinese and Japanese porce¬ 
lains. Besides all these there are Greek and Egyptian 
casts, Roman and Swedish sculptures, and a wonderful 
display of furniture. 

The third floor is nearly all taken up by the picture- 
gallery, which has many works by the great masters of 
the world. 

From the Museum it is only a few steps across the 
iron bridge to Skeppsholm Island, which is given up 
to the great naval and military depots of Stockholm, 
and to the Naval School. The view from the island is 
considered particularly fine. 

Stockholm's countless winding waterways serve as 
public highways, so that instead of engaging cabs or 
taking trams or street cars one can go to many parts 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 53 

of the city by boat, and it does indeed seem much like 
Venice. 

A pleasant ride in one of the numerous little steam 
launches takes us to the south side of the city, which 
is high and picturesque. For this trip we pay three- 
fourths of a cent in our money. In less than a minute 
the steam lift takes us to the highest point, which 
commands the finest view in the city. Between us 
and the rest of the city flow the Malar and Saltsjoen, 
crowded with boats of almost every design imaginable 
steamers, launches, sailing-vessels, and row-boats. 
Before us on Staden Island rises the Royal Palace, 
while beyond on the mainland is the Museum we have 
just visited. Church-spires, parks, gardens, and tree- 
lined streets make up a beautiful picture. 

From the south side a bridge spans the southern 
and lesser arm of the Malar to Staden Island. From 
the bridge we can watch the fish market, which is 
doing a thriving business. The fish are brought in 
boats from the lakes nearby and from the Baltic. 
The fish-boats are quite unique. A large compart¬ 
ment in the stern having holes bored in it is filled 
with water to hold the fish. In this way fresh water 
is constantly flowing through it to keep the fish alive. 

The market is a large floating wharf in the form of 
a capital U. All along the outside are moored the 
boats, and as the housemaids, who in Sweden do 
almost all the marketing, pass by, the fishermen lift up 
their fish in nets for inspection. 

Just before us along the eastern side of Staden 
stretches the Ship-bridge, a broad quay where most of 
the big sea-going steamers anchor. 


54 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

Stockholm is the residence of the king. To see his 
home we must go to the northern point of the Island. 
The Royal Palace is a large square building, with a 
court and four wings. It is four hundred feet long and 
nearly as wide, and contains over five hundred rooms. 
The Swedish flag is not floating to-day above the 
palace, which means that the royal family are not at 
home. We shall therefore be permitted to see the 
private apartments of the palace as well as those of 
state. 

The main entrance leads through a semicircular 
court, and after ascending a handsome stairway one 
comes to the state apartments. The frescoed walls, 
rare furniture, and costly tapestries are much like 
those of other royal palaces, but beyond is the great 
banqueting-hall, quite different from most rooms of 
its kind. It is all white and gold and mirrors, except 
the ceiling, which has beautiful frescoes. This unique 
room is called the White Sea. 

One of the principal rooms on the first floor is the 
Parliament Room, for although the king is required 
by law to open the Riksdag, or Parliament, yet the 
Riksdag is obliged to come to the king for this cere¬ 
mony. 

The opening of Parliament is a very stately affair. 
When, after service in the Cathedral, the members of 
both houses have assembled here in the Riks Sal, a 
hundred courtiers in uniforms of blue and yellow enter. 
Then come the court pages in knee trousers, white 
silk stockings, cocked hats, and their hair in queues. 
Heralds in gay dress precede the royal officers, judges 
and cabinet members, after whom come the royal 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


55 



princes in royal purple. This, however, is not at all 
the purple that we know, but a beautiful dark, rich 
red. Following them are officers of the army and 
navy in fine uniforms, and then, with a blare of trum¬ 
pets, the king himself enters, wearing his mantle of 
purple, dotted 
with gold-em¬ 
broidered crowns 
and lined with 
ermine, the train 
of which is borne 
by three cham¬ 
berlains. When 
seated on the 
great silver 
throne, the king 
reads his speech 
to Parliament. 

King Oscar II 
of Sweden is one 
of the most gifted 
monarchs of Eur¬ 
ope. He is a fine 
musician, and it 
has been said that 

if he had not been a king he could have won fame and 
fortune by his voice. He is a poet as well as a musician. 

King Oscar is a democratic ruler; he does not believe 
in holding himself aloof from his people; he gives fre¬ 
quent receptions to which any one may go provided 
only that the visitor records his name in the royal 
register three days before the reception takes place. 


ROYAL PALACE GARDENS, STOCKHOLM 





QUEEN SOPHIA 

The king and the members of his family often ride 
in the street cars, or even walk, instead of rolling 
through the city in a state carriage. King Oscar, 
although seventy-five years of age, is still one of the 
handsomest rulers in all Europe. 


56 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


At these gatherings may be seen persons of every 
class and from every section of the country mingling 
with those of the court circle. 









A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 57 

On the ground floor of the Palace is the Museum of 
Armor and Costumes, one of the most complete collec¬ 
tions of its kind in the world. Here one may gaze at 
the state robes of Swedish kings and queens for the 
last three hundred years, and the weapons and armor 
of past ages. Among the most interesting objects are 
the horse the great Gustavus Adolphus rode at the 
Battle of Liitzen, the sword he carried in that battle, 
and the cradle in which Charles XII, the Snow King, 
was rocked. 

South of the Palace is the Storkyrka, said to be the 
very church that good old Birger Jarl built for his new 
capital, while still farther south is the Great Market, 
one of the most historical spots in the city. 

Along the narrow lane-like streets leading from the 
Great Market are the shops of the humbler tradesmen. 
Over on the western shore of Staden is the Knights' 
House, and the Riddarhus Market. The Swedes are 
very patriotic, and delight in honoring their kings and 
famous men. In the center of the market stands a 
statue of the people's idol, Gustavus Vasa; the statue 
was placed here by the nobility on the two hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of his freeing the city from Danish 
rule. 

The Riddarhus is a large brick and stone building 
where the Chamber of Nobles held its meetings when 
the nobles formed one of the houses of the Swedish 
Parliament. Now, however, all political privileges 
have been taken from the nobility, and their title no 
longer entitles them to a seat in the Riksdag. Here 
in the Chamber hang the coats-of-arms of all the 
Swedish nobility. 


58 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


Just across on Riddarholm Island is the Riddar- 
holms Church, the most famous in Stockholm, though 
no church service except that of royal funerals has 
been held here for a hundred years; this is the West¬ 
minster Abbey of Sweden, and for centuries the kings 

and heroes of the 
nation have been 
buried in it. Gus- 
tavus Adolphus 
lies buried in a 
green marble 
coffin in one of 
the chapels, and 
near him hangs 
the silken banner 
he carried at Lut- 
zen. On the op¬ 
posite side of the 
church is the 
tomb of Charles 
XII, while in the 
Bernadotte chap¬ 
el rest the father 
and mother, 
grandfather and brother, of King Oscar. 

To the south is the Swedish House of Parliament, 
while in a prominent place in the center of the island 
stands the majestic bronze statue of Berger Jarl, 
fully armed, and pointing with pride to the city he 
founded. 

Recrossing to Staden Island, we pass to the North 
Bridge, extending to the north shore of Malar, and 



RIDDARHOLMS CHURCH 



A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 59 

passing over the principal outlet of that lake. At the 
northern end of the bridge begins the Gustaf Adolfs 
Torg, or Market, in which stands the bronze eques¬ 
trian statue of Sweden’s greatest king. On November 
sixth, the anniversary of his death, the people assemble 
around the monument and sing patriotic hymns, 
among which is the little hymn the hero-king himself 
wrote for his army before Lutzen. 

East of the statue stretch vast gardens with other 
fine statues, while at the northern end of town is 
also a large park. It is to have room for its great 
number of parks, gardens, promenades, and its spacious 
harbors that Stockholm is spread out over so great an 
area. 

A drive through some of the streets is a delightful 
way of becoming better acquainted with this beautiful 
city. Some parts of Stockholm are finely laid out, 
with wide, well-paved streets. Some in the older 
quarters have streets so narrow that if one is on the 
wrong side he must yield the right of way. For this 
reason it has become a custom here for all to pass up 
the street on one side and down on the opposite. 

Most of the streets, except in the newer sections, 
have high stucco houses, like those of Old Paris. 
Indeed, the Swedes have acquired a good many 
French customs and manners. Swedish houses have 
French windows, hinged at the sides, and fastened 
together in the middle, swinging out, when opened, 
like double doors. In winter double windows are put 
in, and all cracks stopped up by pasting on strips of 
gummed paper half an inch wide, which are sold 
ready prepared in all the stores. On the ledge between 


60 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


the outer and inner windows is laid a strip of batting, 
to absorb the moisture, and on this are sometimes 
placed little wooden houses, tin soldiers and other 
toys, to make the window look gay through the long 



SWEDISH POLICE 


winter. Only one pane of the window is ever left open 
for ventilation. 

The cleanliness and tidiness of the Swedes is notice¬ 
able. The law requires every yard and the street 
in front to be swept every morning. Bathing-places 
are plentiful and cheap. 






A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


61 


A SWEDISH FLAT 

Swedish customs are indeed different from American. 
Here, as strangers, we will be expected to make the 
first call on our friend’s friend to whom we were given 
letters of introduction. 

Our hostess, like most people in Stockholm,, lives in 
a flat. This one is in a three-storied building with 
basement and attic. We ring at the double street 
doors, and the janitor peeps out at us through a little 
porthole window. He seems satisfied with our appear¬ 
ance, for he opens the door and admits us without any 
questioning, saying our hostess is at home. It is the 
duty of the janitor to relieve the housewives of the 
building from any undesirable caller by saying the 
lady asked for is not at home. 

Inside is a spacious entrance with stone stairway, 
common to all the suites. We mount to the third 
floor, which in Stockholm is the fashionable floor. 
The first is apt to be damp, and is close to the noise and 
confusion of the street, and the second is low, but the 
third is quiet, lofty, and well lighted. 

A maid receives us in the upper hall and with cour¬ 
tesies takes our umbrellas, rain-coats, and overshoes. 
The wraps she hangs on hooks, while the overshoes she 
places in little pigeon-holes for the purpose. Then we 
enter the drawing-room and are received by our hostess. 

The drawing-room is plainly furnished, but bright 
with sunshine, blooming plants, and singing birds. 
The chief article of furniture is the great porcelain 
stove, which reminds us of the one in the German 
story of “The Nuremberg Stove,” 


62 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


It is surely four feet wide, nearly as deep, and 
reaches almost to the high ceiling. Angels with 
spreading wings crown the pillars, while the decora¬ 
tions are much like those on our mother’s set of Dres¬ 
den china at home. The stove is honeycombed 
throughout with passages leading from a hollow space 
at the bottom, where, each morning in winter, a wood 
fire is built. When the fire has burned to coals, the 
doors are closed, and the damper to the chimney also, 
which causes the heat to rise through all the passages 
and warm the whole great mass of porcelain, which 
for the rest of the day gives out a beautiful mild glow. 
Only in very severe weather does a fire have to be 
built except in the morning. More heat for the 
amount of wood it burns is given out by one of these 
stoves than by any other. 

Knowing that Swedish houses as well as Swedish 
customs are different from American, our hostess 
shows us her home and tells us something of the family 
life. 

The house, like all first-class houses in Stockholm, 
is built of stone, since either stone, brick, or stucco is 
required by law, for the fire-rules of the city are very 
strict. Not only must house-walls be fireproof, but 
the stairs must also be of stone, or iron laid in stone. 

No dwelling can be more than sixty feet high or 
have more than six stories. All flues must be a given 
size, and swept from top to bottom every month. The 
chimney-sweep is in Stockholm a very important 
.person. 

Wash-day is a day of importance in the Swedish 
household, and is often postponed till the family go to 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


63 


the country for the summer. In one of* the long, low 
buildings back of the summer villa are usually a boiler, 
lye vat, and other needful things for the family wash¬ 
day. A landing has been built on the shore of the 
lake, and here, after boiling, the clothes are beaten 
and rinsed and shaken, and finally spread on bushes or 
in the grove to dry. It takes a large supply of linen 
to follow the old Swedish custom in the matter of 
wash-days. 

Our house-mother is a very busy woman, for she 
has a family of six to care for. Her husband must be 
off to his place of business early in the morning, while 
breakfast must be served to the oldest boy before day¬ 
light all through the long winter, that he may reach 
school by eight. 

Two or three lunches have to be served at noon, for 
the children come at different times. A lesson at 
school or perhaps a music lesson detains them over the 
family lunch hour. The good mother would scarcely, 
be able to make everything run as smoothly as she 
does if it were not for her trusty maid. 

Among the many things this maid does for her 
mistress is to take the great brown basket, which, 
when filled, weighs thirty pounds or more, and go to 
market for the family supplies. She knows how to 
make excellent bargains, buying in the open market, 
directly from the country people, who come each 
market-day with loads of poultry, butter, eggs, and 
vegetables. 

Swedish maids are the best in the world. They do 
not work a few weeks in one home and a few weeks or 
only a few days, perhaps, in another, but are hired by 


64 


A LITTLE .TOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 



the year, or at the very least for six months. April 
and October are the months when changes are made, 
if at all. Then Stockholm streets have the appear¬ 
ance of our May moving-day, only the furniture is 
entirely bureaus, for wherever she goes the Swedish 

maid carries her 


bureau with her, 
and very proud 
of it she is. 

It is with re¬ 
gret that we take 
leave of our kind 
hostess, but our 
stay has already 
been too long. W e 
must visit the 
shops of Stock¬ 
holm, see some of 
its suburbs, and 
then start on our 
way to the Far 
North. 

Tourists who 

EARLY MORNING STREET MARKET COme to StOCk- 

holm find the 

shops one of its interesting features. 

Everything one could wish for of the quaint curios 
of this country may be found in the Stockholm shops. 
One whole side of the shop we enter is given to the 
beautiful Roestrand porcelains with their dainty color¬ 
ings and rare shapes. Over here are the Hardanger 
embroideries, which, though bearing a Norwegian 




A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


65 



name, are also done in Sweden, while farther on are 
silver brooches and buckles, and carved woods equal 
to any Swiss work we ever saw. 

A great variety of woolens and silks are displayed, 
and are much cheaper than at home. Many pattern 


GUARD MOUNT, ROYAL PALACE 

pieces of lace in old Northern designs hang in the 
window, with modern homespun blankets and rugs in 
the colorings and patterns of ancient times, furnished 
through the efforts of patriotic ladies of Stockholm, 
who have encouraged peasant women in reviving this 
forgotten art. Among the most popular articles here, 
as elsewhere, are full peasant costumes, especially the 
picturesque dress of Dalarne. 







66 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 



STOCKHOLM’S SUBURBS 

A trip to Stockholm, as we have said, would not be 
complete without a visit to some of its suburbs. First 
among them is Drottningholm, on one of the islands in 
Lake Malar, about seven miles west of Stockholm. 


DROTTNINGHOLM, NEAR STOCKHOLM 

Our steam launch, for of course we go by water, is a 
swift little vessel, one of hundreds of pleasure boats 
plying this beautiful lake. 

Drottningholm, or “Queen’s Island” Palace, received 
its name from the queen who founded it, but the 
present castle was built by a later queen, and adorned 
by various rulers with paintings and works of art. 







A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


67 


One king added a theatre, where he loved to act 
French plays. Another built a Swiss cottage, and a 
third a Chinese pagoda as a surprise for his queen, and 
filled it with a great variety of Chinese curios. King 
Adolf Frederick founded a factory village close by / 
where steel and iron were manufactured, and here the 
king himself used to work, for he was the most skillful 
locksmith in Sweden. This king and his beautiful 
wife, the sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia, 
collected most of the works of art in the palace. Here 
the present king spends a part of nearly every sum¬ 
mer, surrounded, by the beautiful island-dotted Malar. 
Drottningholm is considered the finest palace in 
Sweden. 

From Drottningholm we sail farther to the south¬ 
west on our way to Gripsholm palace, overlooking 
one of the southern arms of Lake Malar. 

The first castle was built by the famous Bo Jonsson, 
the wealthiest man who ever lived in Sweden, and so 
powerful that he dictated terms to great cities and 
mighty kings. Though he died over six hundred 
years ago, his name is still on men's lips. He owned 
no less than twenty great castles in Sweden, the 
greater part of a dozen provinces, besides the whole 
of the vast region of Finland and Norrland. No 
other man in Sweden owned a quarter as much land 
as he. Indeed, there was not much of the country 
left even for the king. The silver money alone which 
he willed away at his death weighed two tons and a 
half. 

He gained his great power by winning the affections 
of the common people. He pretended to consult 


68 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

their wishes and yield to them, but in reality he bent 
their wishes to his. He used often to call the people 
together and address them. On one of his island 
possessions there is still a stone seat called Bo’s Stone, 
where he used to gather the people together. A ditch 
was turned aside in order to leave it in its place, out 
of reverence for him. His fame spread far beyond 
Sweden. Once he declared war against the strong 
Hanse town of Dantzig, and in terror that city appealed 
to Luebec for advice. Out of fear of Bo’s might, 
Luebec counselled that peace be made with the Swede 
by all means. 

The palace of Gripsholm received its name from its 
founder, who was sometimes called Bo Jonsson Gripp, 
on account of the griffin in his coat-of-arms. 

The first palace having been destroyed, the present 
one was built by Gustavus Vasa, and it remained a 
stronghold of the Vasa family for generations. Its 
portrait gallery of two hundred paintings is the finest 
of its kind in Europe. 

Now we are bound for the strong fortress of Wax- 
holm, on a rocky island to the northeast of the city. 
This, like the castle of Gripsholm, was built by Gus¬ 
tavus Vasa, and with the stronghold of Oscar Fred- 
riksborg, a little farther down the channel, commands 
the only approach to Stockholm navigable for large 
vessels, so upon the guns of these two forts depends 
the safety of the capital from attack by sea. 

On our way back we stop at the Deer Garden, the 
most beautiful spot in the whole city. There is said 
to be nothing like it in all Europe. It is really 
an island park, about two miles long and three-quar- 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


69 



ters of a mile wide. Rich and poor alike flock here 
to enjoy the charming scenery or hear the music, 
which is a special feature of the place. 

We enjoy dinner under the “Bellman Oak/’ beneath 
which the Swedish poet Bellman composed many of 


BOAT LANDING, STOCKHOLM 

his songs. This interesting spot commands a fine 
view of the city, and to add to the enjoyment, the 
band plays Swedish airs. Close by is a bronze bust 
of the poet, where, on Bellman’s Day, July twenty- 
sixth, crowds of his admirers gather to recite his 
verses and praise his works. 

Over on the north side of the island is the royal 
villa of Rosendal, built by the grandfather of King 




70 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


Oscar. Here are orange trees and the rarest of tropi¬ 
cal plants, while in front of the villa stands the famous 
vase of porphyry fashioned in Dalarne and measuring 
eight and a half feet in height and eleven and a half 
in diameter. 


UPSALA (up-sa'la) 

There is probably no country in the world, except¬ 
ing America, where so much attention is given to 
education as in Sweden. Aside from the other studies, 
a thorough study is made of the national religion— 
the Lutheran. There is also instruction in voice- 
culture, gymnastics, and “sloyd.” In some of the 
schools there are baths, and all the children must 
bathe at school a certain number of times a year. 
There are school colonies, too, in the country, where 
sickly children are taken for an outing. 

The two great state universities of Sweden are 
located at Upsala and Lund. As we cannot visit 
both, we will content ourselves with seeing something 
of the one nearest. Upsala is only forty-five miles 
from Stockholm, and the University there has almost 
twice as many students as Lund. 

The very highest goal a Swedish youth can reach is 
to receive his degree from this famous old University, 
for the courses are long and exacting, seven or eight 
years being required to receive a degree. 

Upsala was once the capital of Svealand, and here 
the Upsala kings were crowned before the days of a 
united Sweden. It was also the center of heathen 
culture, and here of old stood a temple to the old 
Norse gods. Three stone mounds outside the city are 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


71 


said to have been erected to Allfather Odin, Frigg, 
and Thor. 

The great object of interest in Upsala, aside from 
the University, is the Cathedral. The Upsala Cathe¬ 
dral is larger and grander in its proportions than the 
Trondhjem Cathedral, and nearly as old. It is built 
of brick and stone, and has exquisite stained-glass 
windows. Here is the tomb of the great botanist, 
Linnaeus, who taught in Upsala. Here, too, rest the 
patron saint of Sweden, Erik IX, and her hero-king, 
Gustavus Vasa. 

It is the University, however, which makes Upsala 
famous. This great seat of learning was founded 
more than six hundred and fifty years ago, and im¬ 
proved by Gustavus Adolphus, who, it is said, gave 
much of his own wealth to make it the pride of Sweden. 

The library of the University has two hundred 
thousand volumes and eight thousand precious manu¬ 
scripts. Learned men from distant lands come here 
to study in this “City of Eternal Youth,” as it is 
beautifully called. 

At Upsala Swedish young men and women, too, 
lead a happy life, much after the fashion of German 
students, except that there is no duelling. A youth 
of sixteen or eighteen, who has passed his entrance 
examinations, comes to Upsala, wearing, of course, 
his white cap. He pays his small entrance fee, but no 
tuition. He does not need to consult any of his 
teachers about his work or even state what course he 
expects to follow. He may attend the lectures if he 
likes, but is not obliged to do so. He may study 
alone, or under a tutor. He may listen to lectures, 


72 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


but for private instruction he is expected to pay a 
fee. He takes his examinations whenever he is ready 
for them. When they are all successfully passed, in 
eight or ten years, it may be, he will, on the next 
“promotion day,” receive his doctor’s degree. The 
University has but a single rule, and that is, that 
each student must be a gentleman. 

One thing, however, an Upsala student must not 
fail to do. That is to join at once his proper “Nation” 
and pay his fee. This is an association or club having 
nothing to do with studies; it indicates the part of the 
country from which the student comes. Here, if he 
chooses, he may become a shareholder in the Nation’s 
savings-bank; if he is a poor boy, he may receive 
aid from the Nation’s fund for that purpose; or, if 
he is brilliant, he may, perhaps, receive the Nation’s 
scholarship. Indeed, all his college life is centered 
in his Nation. 

DALARNE 

From Upsala we journey on to Dalarne (da'-lar-na) 
and the region of Lake Siljan (sil'-e-an). The trim red 
farmhouses we pass are surrounded by apple orchards 
and hop fields. Wild flowers and berries run riot 
along the roadside. 

Dalarne, or “The Dales,” is a beatuiful province in 
the heart of Sweden, occupying the basin of the two 
large rivers, the East and West Dolb Elf. Its scenery 
is noted for its beauty, and its people for their quaint 
dress and interesting customs. 

The Dalecarlians (da-le-kar'le-ans) are the most 
patriotic, most practical, and most simple in their 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


73 



dress and manners of any people in Sweden, and 
Dalecarlian women are the most beautiful in all 
Scandinavia. These people are proud of their fore¬ 
fathers, of their ancient customs, and of their lan¬ 
guage, which is not elsewhere spoken. They address 
every one, even 
the king himself, 
with the familiar 
form of du , which 
is used nowhere 
else, in Sweden 
except as a term 
of endearment. 

Representatives 
from The Dales 
go up to Stock¬ 
holm and even to 
court receptions 
in their quaint 
peasant dress. 

Each parish has 
its own costume, 
different from 
any other. 

The people of children of dalarne 

Dalarne, or Dale- 

carlia, are farmers, except in the mining towns; the 
farms, however, are poor and small. The law works 
them great hardship by dividing the property at the 
father’s death. Some of the farms have been subdi¬ 
vided until they are only a few rods square. Often all 
the hay cut upon such a farm can be carried in the 




74 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


arms, yet this farm may be ten or twelve miles from 
the owner’s other holdings. This difficulty in farming 
has led many peasants to leave their beloved home and 
go to the cities, especially to Stockholm, to find work. 
They are very ingenious, and make baskets, clocks, 
tools, and carved woods to sell in the city. The men 
often engage as janitors for flats or apartment houses, 
keeping the halls clean and the wood sawed, split, and 
filled into the box. The girls deliver parcels in the 
city stores, or act as gardeners, for in this they excel. 
It is always looked upon as a sign of spring in Stock¬ 
holm when the pretty, fair-haired girls from Dalarne, 
with their high, tasselled caps and rainbow hued skirts 
appear to take charge of the gardens. 

To see these people in their own homes is the most 
delightful part of a journey through Sweden. 

To a Swede, all Dalarne is sacred ground, for in no 
other part of Sweden have occurred such stirring and 
romantic events connected with the freedom and 
happiness of the land. It was in The Dales that the 
great Gustavus Vasa wandered, an outlaw hunted by 
Danish spies. It was the Dalkarlar who, beneath his 
banner, first made the bold stand to throw off the 
Danish yoke and free their native land. 

The journey north to Lake Siljan is partly by rail 
and partly by boat up the East Dal Elf. The people 
at work in the fields constantly attract our attention. 
The men are dressed in green waistcoats and red shirts, 
the boys in long greenish-yellow coats, while the 
women are gay in many colors. 

Lake Siljan, or the “Eye of Dalarne,” as the name 
means, is a beautiful piece of water. Its banks are 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 75 

neither abrupt nor low. Gently sloping hills, topped 
with forests, stretch away from the lake. The houses 
on its shores are built after the ancient fashion, with 
the second story overhanging the first. Long pink 
row boats with high stern and prow are moored at the 



GOING TO CHURCH, DALARNE 


landings. On the road the ponies we see all have their 
manes cut in one great scallop, like the arc of a circle. 

Just where the East Dal flows from Lake Siljan lies 
the hamlet of Leksand. We have planned our trip to 
reach Leksand on Sunday morning, that we may see 
the people come to church in their rowboats. Some 
of these boats are long enough to seat forty rowers. 
They are called Sunday boats or Church boats, and 
are owned by the village. The women bear their 
share of the rowing, and show as much strength and 
skill as the men. 




76 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


Over here is a boat just run ashore. The maidens 
leap out and hasten to the shade of a big tree to 
freshen up their toilets before appearing at church. 
Taking combs and tiny mirrors from the pockets hang¬ 
ing at their side, they brush a stray lock here and pat 
another there, as they chat together. When all is done 
they set their jaunty little red caps far back on the head. 

You can always tell what station in life a Leksand 
woman holds. At her marriage she changes the little 
red cap for a white one with lace border. If she 
should become a widow she would take off the lace 
trimming and wear the white headdress plain. Tiny 
girls look like little women, for they wear their dresses 
nearly as long as their mothers. Once every province 
in Sweden had its own distinctive costume, but only 
a few, like Dalarne, still cling to it. 

The costume of Leksand women consists of a skirt 
of dark blue wool reaching to the ankle and set off 
with a bright apron tied with leather strings from 
whose ends dangle little tassels. Low shoes and white 
stockings are considered stylish footwear. The bodice 
is either leather or red cloth over a white waist. Both 
girls and boys wear canary-colored clothing. 

The men’s holiday costume is less gay. A long dark 
blue coat reaching to the knee, knee trousers of hide 
and a waistcoat of the same, thick white stockings, 
low shoes, and a round felt hat make up their dress. 
On week days a long leather apron is worn, reaching 
almost from the neck. 

The costumes look very quaint and pretty as their 
wearers come in boatloads of twenty or thirty across 
the lake, or walk along the country road to church. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 77 

The Leksand church is in the form of a Greek cross 
and seats four thousand. The women sit on one side 
and the men on the other. After church service the 
people gather in little groups to talk over the news. 
Though we cannot understand much of the merry 


PEASANTS’ DANCE 

chatter, it is plain from their smiling faces that they 
are enjoying themselves. Soon the women slip from 
the pouch at their side a lunch of bread and butter, 
cheese and young onions, and families gather together 
to eat their simple meal. 

The farms of Leksand have neat red houses with 
white trimmings. To nearly every one belongs a 
garden, fruit trees, and a big bed of onions. Each 
farm in Dalarne, as in Norway, has a name, but it is 
put before the name of the owner. “Broems Olaf 






78 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


Larsson” means the farm “Broems” which belongs to 
Olaf Larsson. 

Let us visit a genuine old-fashioned Leksand farm. 
Its buildings form a square, which is entered beneath 
a sort of porch. On one side is the dwelling and on the 
others barns and stables. Opposite the porch is a 
building whose lower floor is the family storeroom and 
whose upper story is reached by a ladder stairway. 
In winter this is the weaving room and in summer a 
bedroom, with beds one above another. 

The dwelling has bedrooms, a living-room, with 
fireplace, loom and spinning wheels, besides a big 
room where the family clothing is kept. A number 
of chests and a mirror are the chief articles of furni¬ 
ture. On long poles are hung homespun and woven 
skirts, bodices, underclothing, aprons, and home- 
knitted stockings. Here also are laid away great 
rolls of cloth for the men’s holdiay suits, and also the 
winter garments of sheep-skin trimmed with fur. 

Everything about this home is just now bustle and 
preparation for what is the greatest possible event in 
Dalarne—a wedding. The festivities, which are to 
last a week, begin to-morrow, and with true Swedish 
courtesy toward strangers we are invited to join the 
merry-making. With great delight we accept the 
invitation, for a wedding in Dalarne is no small affair. 

Invitations were given two weeks ago. The be¬ 
trothed couple went together to their friends and 
asked them to come to the wedding. Each invited 
guest gave a small measure of malt with which to 
brew the wedding ale. Ring-bread has been baked 
by the barrel, and soft brown bread also. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


79 


Some of the men have been fishing on the lake, and 
here are big tanks of the fish. The fireplace is taxed 
beyond its capacity to cook the meat of the ox and 
four sheep that have been killed, so a big fire has been 
kindled out of doors, over which hangs an enormous 
kettle. The smokehouse is full of bacon and hams, 
and the stock of butter and cheese is large enough for a 
grocery. 

Drinks form a great part of the feast; brown ale, 
toward which each guest has contributed, is stored in 
barrels,, while kegs of braenvin, sherry, and Swedish 
punch are ready for the wedding guests. Having 
been kindly shown these preparations, we take our 
leave and await the wedding morning. 

It dawns bright and clear. We go early to the 
house, as we have been invited to do, but many are 
there before us. There is much running back and 
forth from this farm to the next, for one house could 
not accommodate all, and some of the guests from a 
distance have stayed at the neighbors’. 

An immense arbor of birch branches has been put 
up to protect the dancers from the sun, while arches 
decorate the doors and gateways. The guests all 
come to the home before the ceremony, for the greater 
the number who follow the pair to church, the greater 
the compliment is considered. Each brings some con¬ 
tribution toward the food or drink for the feast. This 
is a very ancient custom, and is called “Foerning.” 

The bride, who was up at three o’clock to begin her 
toilet, at last appears, smiling and happy. Her wed¬ 
ding dress is not very different from that commonly 
worn, but to-day many flowers and beads are sewed 


80 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


on the bodice, and she wears all her brooches; she has 
left off her little red cap, and for the first time appears 
in one of white. 

The groom is dressed much the same as usual. A 
big wide collar falling over his coat is the only added 
feature. This collar and his wedding shirt are gifts 



WEDDING PROCESSION 


from the bride. His gift to her is the prayer-book 
she carries wrapped up in the new handkerchief she 
has herself embroidered. After an ancient custom the 
bride and groom ride on horses decked with birch and 
flowers. 

Now all have reached the church, and the couple 
stand beneath the red canopy before the altar and the 
ceremony of exchanging rings is performed. The 
more intimate friends, to the number of two or three 
hundred, accompany the couple home, where the 
feast is ready. The mother and sisters serve in the 




A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


81 


kitchen and the brothers wait on table. The most 
honored guests are asked to sit down, but it would 
not be considered polite if they were to do so without 
being urged and finally dragged to the table. The 
dancing lasts all night. 

On the last day of the wedding ceremonies the bride 
and groom will stand in the great room of the house, 
where the guests can thank them for the pleasure the 
occasion has given. Each guest, as he takes his leave, 
puts a bill or piece of silver into the hand of the bride, 
and she drops it into the big linen pocket by her side. 

But we must now leave this scene of merry-making 
and start for Mora. 

Across Lake Siljan, on its northern bank, lies the 
parish of Mora, almost as quaint as Leksand. It has 
no pretentious buildings, but is simply a pleasant 
country place, where the peasant people live a simple, 
contented, happy life. They work hard, but enjoy 
their simple pleasures doubly when the day’s work is 
over. On summer evenings the young men take their 
accordions and serenade the maidens of the parish. 
Or perhaps the young people all gather in the evening 
for a dance. 

The Mora costume is quite as gay as that of Lek¬ 
sand. At Mora the dark skirt is bordered with yellow, 
and red stockings take the place of white. The bodice 
is red, while the apron has bright bands across the 
bottom. Two braids are formed of the hair, each 
wrapped in ribbon and together wound around the 
head like a crown. Red ribbons are worn by maidens 
and white by married women. A calico kerchief is 
tied demurely under the chin. 


82 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 



To the north of Lake Siljan lies the parish of Orsa, 
whose people are said to be the handsomest of all 
handsome Dalecarlians. The men are tall, strong, and 
active, and the women have wonderful complexions, 
with deep blue eyes, cherry lips, and teeth kept white 
by chewing the gum of the fir tree. 


ON THE WAY TO WORK 

Orsa parish is poor, for its farms are small and its 
families large. Few of the houses are painted and few 
have gardens or orchards. Some of the farms can 
Support only a couple of cows, a pig or two, and a few 
sheep or goats. If an Orsa peasant owns a horse he 
is thought rich by his neighbors. Everything is 
turned to account. In the fall the twigs and tender 
branches of the birch are cut, bound into sheaves, and 
hung on the tree to cure as winter fodder for the sheep. 
In some homes lobbered milk is put on the table in a 
trough-like dish of wood, and when all are gathered 




A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


83 



around with their spoons the wife sprinkles it with 
brown sugar and ginger, and each marks off his share 
with his spoon. 

In Orsa, as elsewhere, there is a piece of public land 
where a farmer can pasture part of his stock. He can, 
too, by long process of law, get timber from the forest 


AT REST 

commons to build him a house- if he has no timber of 
his own. 

Orsa, like other parts of Dalarne, has many moun¬ 
tain farms. They are quite unlike Norwegian moun¬ 
tain farms, being more like forest homes surrounded 
by big fenced fields of grain and grass. The family 
are often kept here till after Christmas. 

The mountain houses are roomy and comfortable, 
and there are stables for the cattle and sheep. During 
the day the sheep and cattle are taken to pasture, 
generally by one of the daughters, who leads them by 




84 A LTTTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

her voice or horn, and at night she leads them back 
by the salt she carries in her pocket. Not an idle 
moment does she spend, for even as she goes back and 
forth to pasture she knits, and many a stocking does 
she lay away, or mitten with two thumbs, so that it 
may be turned, and thus wear the longer. 

Ever since we came into Dalarne we have noticed 
birch boughs, partly withered, fastened to carts, 
horses, market-stalls, and Siljan boats, as well as green 
arches before the doors, but there have been so many 
new things to see and hear that we only now find out 
what all this air of festivity is about. It is what 
remains of the great midsummer, or St. John’s Fes¬ 
tival, which, particularly in Dalarne, ranks next to 
Christmas. 


MIDSUMMER’S EVE 

Midsummer’s Eve, on June twenty-third, is a rem¬ 
nant of the old heathen Sun Festival, when men 
believed that the Sun God waged continual warfare 
with the Frost Giants, for the benefit of man. When 
the sun reached its greatest height they said that the 
Frost and Rime Giants had been conquered and the 
strong God of Light stood victor. Just after this 
happy victory each year they kept Midsummer Eve as 
a festival of rejoicing. And here in Dalarne the peas¬ 
ants still celebrate the day. 

The Midsummer festival is begun with service in the 
parish church, but the chief feature is the maypole. 
This is indeed something more than a pole—it is like 
the great mast of a ship, eighty or even a hundred 
feet high, with cross-pieces stretched out like arms, 


A LITTLE .TOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


85 


one above another, in all directions. The girls bring 
ox-eyed daisies and asters, and sometimes the bright 
orange mushrooms that grow among the moss, and 
the boys bring birch greens to decorate the pole. 



Sometimes it is trimmed with egg-shells, gilded hearts, 
and paper flowers. 

It is then raised with ropes, amid great shouting and 
clapping, and all dance merrily around it the rest of the 
night. This is the “Maypole Dance.” But Mai in 
Swedish does not mean the month of May; it means 
green leaf, so the May pole stands for the “festival of 
the green leaf.” 

Quaint little cakes are always provided for Mid- 



86 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


summer feasts. They are generally in the shape of a 
pig or a goat. The pig represents Frey’s boar Golden 
Bristles, which from tearing up the earth with its 
tusks typified agriculture and the seed time. The 
goat is in memory of the goats the great god Thor 
drove before his chariot when he went to fight the 
Frost Giants. 

The Orsa costume is unlike any other. The men 
wear a short white homespun coat, knee trousers of 
white leather, and blue stockings. They follow the 
peasant fashion at home and part their hair in the 
middle. 

The women are gay in red bodices, white waists, 
and dark blue skirts ruffled in the weaving. In Orsa 
it is the women who wear leather aprons, which have 
a black cloth border at the bottom. White woolen 
stockings and shoes with the heel almost in the center 
belong to the Orsa costume. Very kindly, and polite, 
too, are these young ladies. Whenever an Orsa lass 
meets a youth, she takes from her swinging pocket a 
piece of rock candy and bites off a piece for him, or if 
she-meets a girl friend she divides with her the gum she 
is chewing. 

The list of names in Orsa is very short. A boy is 
almost certain to be called Anders, Hans, Lars, Olof, 
Erik, Joens, Pers, or Daniel, while the parents of a 
daughter have a still shorter list to choose from. 
Anna, Kristina, Margaretha, Katharina, and Bergitta 
are almost the only names heard. These, however, 
have a great many variations. To tell one from an¬ 
other, the name of their father’s farm is given as a 
part of the name. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


87 


RATTVIK 

No less interesting than the parishes already visited 
is that of Rattvik, on the eastern shore of Lake Siljan. 
Rattvik is perhaps more often spoken of and more 
often visited by tourists than any of the others. 

We have made our plans to attend the midsummer 
fair; there must certainly be two thousand people here; 



GOING TO MARKET, DALARNE . 


the booths are full of wares and the signs above them 
indicate what is sold within; here a painted wooden 
fish announces the fish-market, while skins and shoes 
hung up are among the signs; colored kerchiefs, beads, 
brooches, groceries, pork, and fancy cakes are the 
most common articles. 

The people themselves, however, are the most inter¬ 
esting part of the fair; their gay dress lends color and 
charm to the whole scene. The costume of the 
women consists of a low, dark bodice over a white 



88 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

waist; over the shoulders a gaudy kerchief is pinned 
with a silver brooch; the headdress is a quaint helmet¬ 
like cap of dark blue with red piping in the seams and 
around the edge; it comes down low on the back of the 
head like a college girFs mortar-board, and ends with 
two bands of blue with red balls at the ends; the 
crowning feature is the skirt of dark blue with green 
border and many-hued front breadth; the front is 
striped across in bands two inches wide of black, 
white, yellow, red, and green, separated from each 
other by a narrow rib of red; this is called the rainbow 
skirt, and it is worn nowhere but in Rattvik. 


NORRLAND 


And now comes the trip to Norrland, or Northern 
Sweden. We 'shall , go by way of the Baltic and 
Bothnia, stopping at a number of ports during the 
voyage, and will make the return mostly by rail. 

The steamer Astrid, which in Swedish means Star , 
is to take us the first part of the way, and we hasten 
to get our luggage aboard. Sailing out into fjord 
waters, we are soon beneath the guns of Waxholm. 
For the first twenty or thirty miles out from Stock¬ 
holm the islands are clothed with birch, spruce, oak, 
and pine trees, but as we approach the open Baltic 
they become more bleak and rocky, many being with¬ 
out a tree or bush of any sort, yet are inhabited by 
fishermen. 

The fish they catch is almost their sole means of 
support, for the soil is so barren that not even a cow 
can find pasture, but must depend for feed upon moss 
brought from elsewhere. 

The nets of these fishermen have little rolls of birch 
bark fastened to the upper side as buoys to hold them 
at the surface, and birch rolls tied around a stone 
answer for sinkers. 

We touch at Sundsvall, the second port of the Norr- 
land, having a population of eleven thousand people. 
The boat stops for several hours, giving a good oppor¬ 
tunity to see the city. A very modern-looking town 
it seems to be; it has large iron-works, but its chief 

89 



90 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

business *is the lumber trade, amounting to twenty 
million crowns, or about eight hundred thousand dol¬ 
lars each year. Besides large mills in the city for 
sawing the timber floated down the river, there is an 
extensive trade in raw timber. 

About fifty miles north of Sundsvall is Hernosand, 
a town of six thousand inhabitants, at which our 

steamer leaves us 
to await the next 
one, a day later, 
for we must see 
something of the 
scenery along the 
Angerman Elf, 
the most beauti- 
ful river of 
Sweden. Her¬ 
nosand is a pic¬ 
turesque little 
town on an island 
situated very pleasantly near the river mouth. 

There is time for a drive into the country to see one 
of the big farms, in the midst of beautiful river scenery, 
and for a brief visit to the agricultural school near by. 
Fields of winter wheat, oats, and barley are common. 
The farmhouse here is a two-story building a hundred 
feet long and nearly fifty wide, and is in keeping with 
the estate, for the farm contains seven hundred acres 
of cultivated land, besides forest and pasture. The 
fields are sown almost entirely to barley. 

Besides this great dwelling there are eighteen large 
outbuildings, among which are granaries unlike any- 



GIRLS IN NATIVE COSTUME 
On the Lake Naas, Sweden 




A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 91 

thing we have ever seen. One is nearly two hundred 
feet long, while another is a hundred feet long, forty 
wide, and thirty high. Great tree-trunks are set in 
the ground about ten feet apart and holes bored through 
them, into which cross-pieces are set. There are a 
dozen of these great cross-beams supported by others, 
the whole forming a huge rack on which to pile the 
bundles of barley, while a roof protects it from the 
rain. 

In the center of the granary is a large open square 
provided with a floor on which to thresh the grain. 
The barley is spread out on the plank floor, and a 
heavy wooden roller with long pins is drawn back and 
forth over it by a span of horses until the grain is 
threshed out. 

When a granary is raised, a “bee” is held, and all 
the neighboring peasants come to the raising. After 
the frame is in place a great merry-making follows, 
with dancing and bountiful feasting. 

A large herd of cows is one of the richest possessions 
of the farm. One end of the big dairy-house is con¬ 
verted into an icehouse, and the milk is kept' sur¬ 
rounded with very cold water, so that the cream never 
sours; this makes the butter very sweet and of a fine 
flavor. The good housewife herself superintends the 
work of the dairy. 

Before returning to Hernosand we visit the Agri¬ 
cultural School of Nordvik. Here the boys are taught 
when and how to plow, when to sow crops, what crops 
are best suited to the different soils, and how to care 
for cattle, sheep, and horses. 

Upon our return to Hernosand the good steamer 


92 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


“Gustaf”—named for the two most illustrious kings 
of Sweden—bears us northward. 

Those curious boats we are passing are used for 
seal hunting. Their prow rises gradually from the 
center to a high, rounded head. It is thus enabled to 
pass over cakes of ice or land its crew on ice-floes in 
order to capture the seals. The wind is fair, and they 
are sailing fast. 

Our vessel is too large to ascend the Ume Elf as far 
as Umea, so at the port of this city we board a small 
passenger steamer to the city itself. 

Though Umea is a town of only three thousand 
inhabitants, it is a busy one. There are millions of 
feet of lumber waiting to be shipped away, for, like 
Sundsvall, Umea is a great lumber market. It is 
also a great mart for tar from the white-pine forests 
of the surrounding country. Ten thousand barrels of 
tar stand on the spacious wharves, ready to be sent 
away with the lumber. From what* we learn from a 
native, the process of making the tar is much the 
same here as in Norway. 

A stroll through town shows that the streets are 
very clean, though narrow. Since lumber is so plenti¬ 
ful, it of course forms the most common building 
material. Like most Swedish houses, those of Umea 
are painted red. 

The people of this remote northern town maintain 
a good school, and it is quite evident the people are 
fond of music, for the town boasts a hundred pianos. 

Just outside the town are fields of barley, rye, and 
oats, and meadows with wild flowers here and there. 
The streams have salmon in them. 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


93 


Our steamer has just arrived at the port of Umea, 
and we reach it in time to take supper on board. It 
seems to be a floating restaurant for the people of 
Umea and the country around. Loading and unload¬ 
ing lasts till into the night, for the steamer brings a 
big cargo of steam apparatus for sawmills, snuff' in 



WINTER SCENERY 


barrels, wines, ironware, casks of nails, together with 
dry goods and groceries; returning it loads with rye 
and barley. 

All this while a merry time is going on among those 
who come aboard. Some have come for the meal of 
dainties from a warmer climate, which includes rad¬ 
ishes, asparagus, and fruits. Others, who could not 
afford even the moderate price charged for the meal, 
are getting full enjoyment from the dancing and 






04 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN' 

general merry-making. Not till the whistle sounds do 
they go ashore. 

There are a number of farmers on board returning 
home from a trading trip to Umea. They are very 
frugal, and do not spend their money for dainties on 
board, but carry their raw salt herring, coarse knaecke- 
broed, or ring-bread, and cheese in birch bark boxes. 
For their beds at night they spread their blankets 
among the piles of casks and boxes. 

At Lulea, about a hundred and sixty miles north of 
Umea, the steamer makes a long stop, for this is an 
important port of the Norrland. Though now a town 
of only thirty-five hundred people, it has bright pros¬ 
pects for the future, for its trade is increasing rapidly. 
It is the seat of the Gellivara Company, who own the 
rich iron mines of Gellivara Hill, somewhat more than 
a hundred miles to the northwest. 

This iron mountain of Lapland is thought to be the 
greatest iron-ore field in the world. It is two thou¬ 
sand feet high and is almost a solid mass of iron ore 
of the richest kind. Iron was long ago discovered 
here, but not until recent years has the work of mining 
been scientifically carried on. The Gellivara Company 
is a very wealthy one, and is working the mines of this 
vast field on a large scale, employing more than two 
thousand men in summer and fifteen hundred even in 
the winter, when the work is carried on with so much 
difficulty on account of the intense cold. 

Great quantities of ore are sent by rail to Lulea and 
from there to foreign countries, but more still is now 
being shipped over the new road from Gellivara to 
Faegernaes, on the Norwegian coast, opposite - the 



A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 95 

Lofoten Islands. Although this Norwegian port is 
much farther north than Lulea, it has the great ad¬ 
vantage of being open the whole year through, for the 
Gulf Stream prevents its freezing even in winter. 

It is surprising what a variety of vegetables and 
fruits grow in this region, so near to the Arctic Circle; 



NORTH CAPE 


strolling along the streets we see in the gardens straw¬ 
berries, raspberry and blackberry vines, gooseberry 
bushes, turnips, carrots, cabbage, and peas; there are 
no apple or cherry trees, but out in front of the 
big red and white houses are tulips and lilies. The 
mild air, which enables so many plants to grow here, 
is due to the long hours of summer sunshine and the 
shelter which the mountains give to the Lule Valley, 
while the heavy dews also help all growing things. 
The rye in the fields is growing finely, and if the year 



96 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


is good will reach a height of six or seven feet. Along 
the edge of the fields are poppies and bachelor-buttons. 

We are now on the Tornea (tor'-ne-o) River, at the 
head of Bothnia, seven hundred and fifty miles from 
Stockholm. This seems like the very edge of civiliza¬ 
tion, for here is the last telegraph that connects us 
with the rest of the world. Forty miles more and we 
should reach the Arctic Circle! We are almost within 
the realm of the Midnight Sun again, for the day 
before yesterday the sun rose at one minute after mid¬ 
night and set at thirty-seven minutes past eleven in 
the evening. 

Steamers cannot reach the town on account of . 
shoals, but land their passengers and cargo five miles 
below. Passengers are taken to town in the odd two- 
wh'eeled carriages used here, as in Norway. 

Along the shore great piles of lumber and hundreds 
of barrels of tar are waiting to be put aboard for 
southern ports, for Haparanda is the shipping-point 
for all northern Sweden and Russian Finland. Salmon, 
too, is shipped in great quantities, for the Torne Elf is 
one of the clear streams of Northern Sweden where 
this fish comes in great numbers. Several boat-loads 
are often caught in a single day, so salmon-fishing is 
one of the principal industries of Haparanda. 

THE FINNS 

The Tornea River, three hundred miles in length, is 
here the boundary between Sweden and the Grand 
Duchy of Finland, which now belongs to Russia. Just 
across the river from Haparanda (ha-pa-ran'-da) is the 
Finnish town of Tornea. The Finns in this locality 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 97 

are well-to-do. Their harvests are usually good, and 
their dairies and salmon fisheries the best in the Far 
North. 

Though Sweden has lost her ancient possession of 
Finland, she still lays some claim to the Finns, for she 
numbers seventeen thousand of them among her peo¬ 
ple. Northern Sweden, lying next to Finland, includes 
the greater portion of these. Here she lets them live 
quite independently, speaking their own language and 
keeping their own customs, even to sleeping huddled 
together on top of their great stove in winter, or keep¬ 
ing a snake for.a household pet, as we do a cat or dog. 

The Finns are closely related to the Lapps, but are 
superior to them. As a people they are honest, indus¬ 
trious, skillful, and kind-hearted. The Finns of Stock¬ 
holm are among its best citizens. Some of the greatest 
of Scandinavian poets and learned men have been of 
Finnish birth. 

While in this far remote region of Sweden we may 
find Finns who are, perhaps, uneducated, and simple 
in their way of living, we must think of the Finnish 
people as a race well advanced in the arts of living, and 
devoted to music, art, and literature. 

Crossing the Torne, we journey west some distance, 
and finally stop for the night at a post-station. The 
house, barn, and cowhouse, together forming three 
sides of a square, are the only buildings. The house 
is small and made of birch-logs, with a turf roof. A 
bedroom for guests and a kitchen are its only rooms. 
In one corner of the kitchen is the fireplace, six or 
eight feet square, made of solid slabs of stone, with a 
sliding iron door, which, after the wood is burned to 


98 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

charcoal, is closed to keep the heat from escaping. In 
this way the warmth is held for a day or two. 

The kitchen is also the sleeping-room for the family. 
Each bed is a kind of drawer built along the wall and 
filled with hay. Through the day they are pushed 
partly in and covered with a board, and lo! the kitchen 
is furnished with a rude sort of sofa. At night they 
are pulled out and spread with sheepskins for covering. 
The guest-room has for its only furniture rude bed¬ 
steads with eiderdown beds and coarse homespun 
blankets. 

Breakfast consists of smoked reindeer meat, black 
bread and butter, cheese, and coffee with salt to flavor 
it. The plates, dishes, and spoons are all of wood, and 
forks are entirely wanting. Coffee-cups are the only 
crockery, while the well-scrubbed table is made to 
answer without a cloth. 

Long before we are up the men of the family have 
gone to work in the fields. This is the busy time of 
the year, for in the few weeks of summer must be done 
all the outdoor work of the year. Logs must be floated 
down the stream, for ice will soon cover the river; 
crops must be planted, cultivated, and harvested, all 
within eight or nine weeks at the longest. The salmon¬ 
fishing in the rivers and the trout-fishing in the lakes 
must be carried on, too, in this brief period, for the 
fish must form a large part of the family’s food. The 
women, as soon as the necessary work in the house and 
at the barn is done, will go to the fields, too. 

Even in a good year these people find it no easy 
matter to get along, but when the crops fail there is 
misery indeed. Our host has told us how, during one 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 99 

year of famine, they were obliged to live on fish and 
sour milk, with now and then stewed birch-bark to 
which was added a tiny quantity of flour, or a bit of 
reindeer moss cooked in milk. Most of the moss, 
however, had to be saved for the poor cattle, for 
there was no hay. 





LAPP CARAVAN 


Every possible article of food is- treasured up. 
Bird-houses are built near the houses for water birds, 
that their eggs may be taken and used for food. 

While the work is being done at the barn, let us 
take a peep. Here straw and hay are so scarce that 
it is difficult to raise enough for the poor animals to 
eat, so they have no bedding, but must lie on the bare 
floor. In one end of the barn is a big platform of 
masonry with an immense iron pot in the center; in 
this the coarse marsh-grass is mixed with the dust 

L. OF C, 





100 A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 

from the threshing of grain, and cooked for the cattle; 
the kettle is also used as the family bathtub; a fire is 
built and the water warmed, then one member steps 
in, while another switches him smartly with a bundle 
of birch twigs. 

Much of our road through this part of Lapland lies 
through forests of pine and fir, and on either hand in 
the distance we see hills covered to their tops with 
white-trunked birches. The forests are in some places 
carpeted with reindeer moss of a greenish-white. 

Bidding our host goodbye, we set out again with 
fresh horses and drivers on the route which is to take 
us to the Gellivara railroad. It reaches farthest north, 
we have learned, of any railroad in the world, end¬ 
ing away up on the coast of Norway. This furnishes 
Northern Sweden what it has always lacked—a sea¬ 
port whose harbor is open all the year. Now that 
trade need not come to a standstill for months together 
on account of being shut off from the sea, great things 
are hoped for; moreover, this Lapland road connects 
the interior of Northern and Southern Sweden, and 
this must help in bringing the newer civilization into 
the Far North. 

We take the “Lapland Express/' which runs twice 
a week from the Norwegian coast to Stockholm, and 
after a ride that proves in no way tedious, we find our¬ 
selves in central Sweden. 


SVE ALAND 


MINES AND FOUNDRIES 

Soon after leaving Gefle, we enter the great mining 
and iron and steel manufacturing region of Central 
Sweden, which extends from Lake Siljan on the north 
to the Vener and Vetter on the south and from the 
Malar on the east to the Klar Elf on the west. This 
region has more than three hundred mines, which 
cover many acres, and yield from three-fourths of a 
million to a million tons of iron ore a year. 

There is great diversity in the ores of these different 
mines, so that Swedish iron is suited to a great variety 
of uses. On the other hand, the ore of each particular 
mine is very even in quality, so that manufacturers 
have little trouble in turning out the same grade of 
product from month to month and from year to year, 
but can always depend upon the supply of a certain 
mine for making the delicate blends necessary to pro¬ 
duce the high-grade brands for which they have become 
famous. Therefore, the ores from particular mines 
are especially prized at particular works. 

These two facts have helped greatly in giving 
Swedish iron and steel the .highest place in the world. 
What has aided most, however, is Svea’s poverty in 
coal, for she is almost without this useful fuel. 

But how could scarcity of coal, which we think so 
necessary to run our foundry furnaces, be the means 
of turning out fine iron and steel? Simply in this 
101 


102 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


way: It has led Sweden to find a better fuel for this 
purpose, which is charcoal. If Svea had plenty of 
coal she would not cut her forests to feed her foun¬ 
dries, when she might keep them for seemingly more 
noble uses—for ship-building, lumber, fine cabinet¬ 
work, and paper; but because she must rely on her 
forests for carrying on her steel manufacture, and the 
forests are limited, Svea contents herself with turning 
out a far less amount of iron and steel than she would 
otherwise be capable of, and confines herself to the 
finer branches, compensating for lack of quantity by 
the vastly superior quality of her goods. 

Out of the choicest of her ores she makes, with wood 
and charcoal for fuel, such iron and steel as no other 
country attempts, and which bring so high a price that 
she could not afford to waste them on rails and other 
coarse products. She even buys abroad the iron rails 
for those very roads over which she sends her own fine 
steel. 

The economy of wood for use in the great furnaces 
of Central Sweden has of late years been a matter of 
close study. Almost all the great steel companies 
own hundreds of thousands of acres of forest; land, 
mainly in the great timber region of the Norrland, 
and besides their vast iron and steel works carry on a 
lumber business almost as great. For every tree they 
cut they plant another. And in order to use the 
small young trees, the paper-pulp business is added 
to that of lumbering, so that every bit of the forest 
timber is used in the most profitable way, and only 
the refuse for furnace fuel. The timber too old and 
tough and too poor for lumber, is burned into charcoal 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


103 


for the furnaces. Not a splinter or a grain of saw¬ 
dust is wasted. These, with all the waste slabs in 
sawing, if not used in the company’s own works, are 
sold to put into the gas-producer of the oil-tempering 
plant of some gun factory. 

The large and rapid rivers of this region contribute 
almost as much to this great industry as do the for¬ 
ests. The steel and pulp factories both demand enor¬ 
mous power to turn their massive machinery, and this 
is supplied by transmitting by electricity the power of 
the water in the rivers. Thus the wood can be reserved 
for heating purposes. 

There are in Central Sweden so many centers for one 
branch or another of the great steel industry that it 
would be impossible to visit them all. 

THE GOETA CANAL 

The trip from Stockholm to Goeteborg over the 
Goeta Canal we have reserved for the last of our sta}^ 
in Sweden. 

The Goeta Canal is, as we have said, a general name 
for the great waterway across Sweden, connecting the 
Baltic with the North Sea. The actual length of the 
canals which it was necessary to dig to connect the 
great series of lakes and rivers of this section with the 
east and west coast is only about a seventh of the 
whole route. 

This great feat of engineering skill was not all done 
at once. It was thought of nearly two hundred years 
ago, and the first cutting was made over a hundred 
years ago in the most difficult part, through the solid 
rock around the celebrated Trollhaettan Falls. Later 


104 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 



other portions were dug, but the whole was not com¬ 
pleted till 1855. The whole work thus lasted a hun¬ 
dred and fifty years, and cost ten million dollars, 


NYA DOCKS, TROLLHAETTAN 

without the cost of regularly-paid workmen, for it 
was done largely by the army. 

The entire length of Goeta Canal or waterway is 
three hundred and seventy miles, of which fifty are 
over the Baltic and fifty have been cut. The canal 
proper, or portion which has been cut, is ten feet deep, 
eighty-eight feet wide at the top, and forty at the 
bottom. A steamer in crossing must rise three hun- 




A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


105 


dred feet. This is accomplished by a wonderful 
series of seventy-six locks. 

The amount of travel and shipping over the Canal 
is very great; ten thousand vessels pass over it yearly, 
though some make only a part of the journey. The 
canal-boats here are not at all the canal-boats we 
know at home; the Swedish vessels are iron steam¬ 
ships, often a hundred feet long; if they could take on 
coal enough, they might cross the ocean; indeed, three 
have steamed across the Atlantic to South America to 
be used as steamers on the La Plata River. 

Inside, the Goeta steamers are models of neatness 
and order. There are flowers on the table and a spot¬ 
less cloth, to say nothing of the well-served dishes. 
The stateroom is a cosy nook; under its round window 
is a beautifully-polished washstand that when not in 
use is entirely closed by a folding cover. There are 
no berths over one another, but on each side of the 
window is a seat with cushions, which is a sofa by dav 
and a bed by night. 

Outside, the steamer is navigated by men, but inside 
it is managed by women. The lady captain buys the 
cream, radishes, chickens and other dainties from the 
peasants along the way. While one maid in the 
kitchen peels potatoes, another goes the rounds of the 
berths and makes the beds. Others wait on table and 
serve coffee on deck, and, if we do not wish to be 
troubled with keeping in the little book on our wall 
our account of what we have ordered at meals, a maid 
will kindly do it for us. 

On such a vessel we make our way over the Goeta, 
a journey lasting about two days and a half. From 


106 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


Stockholm we steam a little way along the southern 
shore of Lake Malar, then turn south through the deep 
Soedertelje Canal. Near its outlet into a fjord of the 
Baltic, we are told, lies the town of Soedertelje, though 
we can see little of it, since it is hidden behind the high 
embankment of the canal. Here, at the lock, old 
women with kerchiefs tied about their heads come on 
board with baskets of the wonderful kringlor, or ring- 
twisted cakes, famous throughout Sweden. 

Next comes a sail of fifty miles among the wooded 
islands of the Baltic, then we enter the canal extending 
west to Lake Roxen. Close by is Norrkoeping, one of 
the greatest manufacturing cities of Sweden. It has 
paper mills, tobacco and machine shops, match fac¬ 
tories, soap works, breweries, sugar refineries, starch 
factories, tanneries, chemical works, woolen and cotton 
mills, stocking factories, and ship-building docks. 
What, indeed, does it not make for Svea’s comfort and 
convenience? With pride she calls it her Manchester. 

Lake Roxen is fifteen miles from the Baltic. It is 
about fifteen miles long and seven wide, and has 
beautiful scenery along its shore. From Roxen the 
canal is continued, and sixteen locks take us up to 
Lake Boren, a pretty bit of water nine miles long. 
Then comes another canal two miles in length, with 
more locks, and we are at Motola, upon the shore of 
Lake Vetter. 


MOTOLA 

Motola is a town of several thousand people, besides 
the thousands of men employed in its factories and 
iron works. The workmen have a colony of their 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


107 


own, where dwellings, schools, hospitals, and club¬ 
houses have been built for them. The Mo tola steel 
works are among the most celebrated in Sweden, being 
especially famous for their steam engines. Here one 
of the mighty hammers is called “Wrede” or “Wrath.” 

Motola will always be associated with the Goeta 
Canal. The great iron works of the town were also 
the enterprise of the illustrious Swede, Balthazar Von 
Platen, who planned the final undertaking of the canal, 
and by his indomitable energy succeeded at last in 
overcoming the bitter opposition which for more than 
thirty years prevented his plan from being carried out. 

So dear to his heart was Motola that when he found 
his life ebbing, he said, “Bury me at Motola, beside 
the two works I love, and let a plain slab from the 
quarries of Motola mark my resting-place. Let nothing 
be put upon it but ‘Count B. B. Von Platen/ The 
world knows the rest.” And so here, in a little 
enclosure beneath the elms along the canal, is his 
grave, in the very spot he himself had indicated. 

Lake Vetter, into which we now steam, is eighty 
miles long. It is narrow and very deep, and has but 
few islands. It is very clear and blue and beautiful, 
being fed by a great number of springs, but terrible 
storms often arise suddenly, without any seeming 
cause. 

On the southern shore are seen the towers of Karls- 
borg rising above its massive ramparts. Karlsborg is 
a great, entrenched camp for twenty thousand men, 
and forms the great central fortress of Sweden. 

The old town of Vadstena, on Lake Vetter, has for 
its busy harbor the old moat of Gustavus Vasa’s 


108 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


ancient castle, which has been filled with water from 
the lake. From this unique harbor are shipped great 
quantities of grain, lumber, iron, and liquor. 

The art of lace-making is one of the important indus¬ 
tries of the place. Vadstena peasant women come on 
board the steamer with baskets on their arms filled 
with lace collars, cuffs, caps, and handkerchiefs. 
These kerchiefs are the finest in Sweden, and are in 
odd designs found nowhere else. 

From the Vetter, a canal with one lock takes us to 
little Lake Viken, the highest point on the route, 
where our steamer is three hundred feet above sea 
level. From Viken another canal leads northwest to 
Lake Vener. 


LAKE VENER 

Lake Vener is the largest lake of Scandinavia. 
Indeed, there are but two larger in all Europe. It is 
a great inland sea a hundred miles long and fifty wide. 
Its shores are beautiful, with fjords and wooded hills. 
Along its banks are many busy towns and historical 
castles, as well as numerous sawmills, iron works, and 
lighthouses. For a time, however, we are out of sight 
of land. 

On the north shore of Vener is Kristinehamn, which 
is connected by railways and canals with the great 
mining region of Central Sweden. It is thus a great 
mart for the products of this part of the country on 
their way to the sea. Each year it sends away great 
quantities of ores, iron, timber, and grain. Every 
April Kristinehamn holds a great fair, where all the 
big contracts for iron and timber are made. Besides 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 109 

its great trade with other places, the city has many 
factories of its own, among which are machine shops, 
tanneries, and match factories. 

Another canal, another little lake, and we are upon 
the waters of Goeta Elf. A maid serves a lunch of 
pretty sugared ring-twisted cakes and coffee, and soon 
another one with smiles and courtesies says, “ Now we 
have come to Trollhaettan.” 

BEAUTIFUL TROLLHAETTAN 

Here is the most wonderful part of all the Goeta 
Canal. Eleven locks, a hundred and twelve feet long, 
are partly blasted out of the solid rock and partly 
built of great blocks of granite. It will take three 
hours to pass the locks, so we may go ashore and gaze 
upon the beautiful falls of Trollhaettan, or watch our 
good steamer as it makes the descent, and go aboard 
again when it has accomplished its wonderful task. 
On each side of the locks are avenues of trees, so that 
the locks look like a row of terraces, one above another, 
or a giant stairway, down which our steamer passes, 
with no giant tread, however, but as gently and easily 
as a fairy might glide. 

“Trollhaettan” means “Home of the Water 
Witches.” 

The people in some parts of Sweden keep not only 
their old customs, but also many of their old super¬ 
stitions—that is, they do not forget them, though they 
no longer really believe in them as of old. Every¬ 
where one hears mention of Frost Giants, Trolls, 
Dwarfs, and Elves. No wonder that Cold , the mighty 
enemy of the Northland, is looked upon as a giant, 


110 


A LITTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


nor is it surprising that fairies should here visit the 
imagination, for in some localities a soft, transparent 
mist hangs over the plain like a veil, through which 
everything is seen in shadowy outline. Objects near 
at hand appear far away. Flaxen-haired maidens 



STATUE OF KARL XII, KINGS GARDEN 


seem like fairies. This is caused by the sudden con¬ 
tact of cold air with the warm surface of the earth, 
while the dryness of the air prevents its turning into 
genuine fog. 

Trollhaettan is a series of mighty rapids rather than 
falls, for the river descends only a hundred feet in a 
mile of its course. There are five cataracts, the grand¬ 
est of which is Toppoe Fall; half way up the barren 











A TATTLE JOURNEY THROUGH SWEDEN 


111 


rock of Toppoe divides the stream, and the waters 
come thundering down on each side with a mighty 
and deafening roar. All too soon our three hours at 
Trollhaettan pass, and we are once more steaming 
down the Goeta to Goeteborg. 

CONCLUSION 

Our journey through Sweden is at an end, and it is 
with great regret that we bid her hospitable people 
good-bye. We have been much impressed with their 
honesty, industry, and soberness. Everywhere we 
have met with kindness and courtesy. The Swedes 
are kind to each other, kind to their domestic animals, 
and to any little beast or bird which may chance to 
come their way. It is said that the family of the 
Swedish farmer never sits down to the Christmas 
dinner without first raising a pole with a sheaf of grain 
for the birds. 

The Swedes seem especially thoughtful for those 
less fortunate than themselves; whenever they eat a 
lunch by the roadside and have anything left they 
never throw it away; it is carefully laid upon a stone 
or stump for some hungry passer-by; the traveler in 
Sweden often sees a piece of rye bread or a sausage 
left in some clean place along the road. 

The children of Sweden might give the children of 
America many a lesson in courtesy, kindness, and 
hospitality; whenever a Swedish child meets a stranger 
or traveler in the country districts of Sweden, he is 
pretty sure to present him with a bouquet of flowers, 
or run to open the gate for him, or perhaps offer him 
a drink of water. 


VOCABULARY 


Allee—al-la/o 
Avasaxa—a-va-sak-sa. 
Blekinge—bla'king-eh. 
Bohus—boo'hous. 

Dalarne—da/lar-na. 
Dalecarlians—da-le-kar'le-a. 
Gottland—Got'-land. 

Goeta—ge'ta. 

Gotha. 

Goeteborg. 

Gothenburg—got'en-borg. 
Gifle—yaf'le. 

Haparanda—ha-pa-ran'da. 
Heligoland—hel'go-land. 
Jarl—yarls. 

Karlskrona—karls-kro'-na. 
Kalmar—kal'mar. 

Kattegat—kat'te-gat. 
Lutzen—loot'zen. 

Malmoe—mal'mo. 
Marstrand—mar'strand. 
Oeland—e'land. 

Oerust—o'roast. 

Smaland—sma'lant. 

Siljan—sil'e-an. 

Svea—sva'. 

Tornea—t or'-ne-o. 

U psala—up-sa/la. 

Ystad—tis'tad. 


112 


SWEDISH NATIONAL AIR. 

“DU GAMLA, DU FRISKA, DU FJELLHOGA NORDF 


Andante maestoso. 



Qu_ J it * i N h 

1 N s , 


7TV 

2 . \ \ \ 1 2 

3 j T 1 


ze Pp 

9 2 2 2 W 9 

9 1 - ! i • 

xr 'tz L 

9 9 % 

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T w 

a . . F 


m m [j 


r r ft* 

Thou an - cient, thou health ful, thou moun-tain-ous North, Where 

Du gam - la , du fri - ska, du fjell - ho - ga Ford, Du 



joy with peace - ful beau - ty dal 
ty - sta, du glad - je - ri - ka sko 



s 

—r 



lies; I 

naf Jag 




















































































































































A Little Extra Reading Matter 


Little Journeys 

Splendid Supplementary Reading for every School. Interesting, reli¬ 
able and helpful supplementary reading. 

Twenty-eight books. Each tells of the habits, customs, dress, condi¬ 
tions, etc., of the people. Each book about 104 pages. Shows the flag 
of the country in colors; map of the country in colors. From twenty-five 
to forty illustrations, and in paper editions; the national song, words and 
music; many of them have directions for holding an entertainment on the 
country visited or studied, etc. The reading matter is interesting and en¬ 
joyed by pupils and parents, as well as teachers. 

The following countries have been visited: 


Cuba 

London and Liverpool 

Porto Rico 

England 

Hawaii 

Scotland 

Philippines 

Italy 

China 

France 

Japan 

Holland 

Mexico 

Belgium and Denmark 

Alaska 

Switzerland 

Canada 

Spain and Portugal 

Australia 

North Germany 

Ireland 

South Germany 

Russia 

Norway 

Austria 

Sweden 

Greece 

Turkey and the Balkans 


These may also be had in cloth editions. Two countries in one, 50 
cents each. 


A. FLANAGAN CO., CHICAGO 





















I 























































N 






















































































V 


« 






















































MAR IE 1906 














































































































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